A key word I would use to describe The Invisible Mother is unexpected. I wasn’t prepared for this movie. Based on the trailer, I expected The Invisible Mother to be an indie horror film with references to psychedelic cinema and some good lighting. All of this is true. But I definitely didn’t expect the movie to be as damn weird as it was. And I absolutely didn’t expect it to actually scare me. But it did. Maybe that was the edibles. Or maybe it’s because the best way I can describe The Invisible Mother is a David Lynch film by way of John Waters. That’s a stressful and upsetting combination of influences!
The Invisible Mother is a movie about a haunting, I guess. Does it have to be ghosts to constitute a haunting? All I know is the house in this movie has got some fucking problems. When lead character Marcy first arrives to stay with her grandparents, things aren’t weird at first. Her grandmother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so she acts a bit strange, though within the boundaries expected for that condition. Except then, Marcy’s grandmother begins to claim that there are voices behind the walls and phone calls no one else can hear. Eventually, Marcy too begins to witness these events. There’s more going on here than just Alzheimer’s. Something strange and spooky is going on in this house.
The queer stuff in The Invisible Mother is minimal. Marcy mentions and ex-girlfriend and in another scene, she specifically says, “I’m a lesbian.” Her sexuality is not relevant to the plot and appears the bare minimum amount to appear on this site. It’s not interesting. Moving on.
I’m really impressed with the level of reasonable ambition The Invisible Mother displays. This movie has big ideas and a complete understandings of its limitations. The film is really good at finding ways to scare within a budget. Instead of biting off more than it can chew, The Invisible Mother takes time and energy in perfecting what it can show. There’s such a focus on the minor details that can make or break an idea. Aspects like sound, pacing and especially lighting are so clearly controlled and considered in every scene of the film. That’s one thing that really elevates the movie as an indie horror offering.
Plus, there’s just the fact that this stuff is pretty damn scary. Alzheimer’s is scary to start. It’s sad more than anything, but many a horror movie has also used it as a place of horror. The Invisible Mother also excellently makes the home a source of horror rather than comfort. That inverse is effective and stressful. I don’t want unknown people whispering behind my walls! Things that are unknown and unexplainable are scary. And The Invisible Mother refuses to explain shit. Everything is scary and stressful and you don’t know why or how. We never learn what the supernatural beings are, how to stop them or what their motives are. Though some scenes suggest that one of the motives might be a sex thing! So that’s fucking upsetting! I already don’t want ghosts in my house and now you’re telling me they’re jerking off too?
I expect the sheer weirdness of the film is not going to appeal to everyone. Whether or not you find the weird stuff scary is beyond my ability to predict. Parts of the film don’t work for me. There’s a few secondary characters or subplots which simply took away from the scary (sexual?) house thing. The film is listed as a comedy so I guess that’s where the southern belle neighbour and helpful weed dealer come into things. But I ended up in a place where I couldn’t laugh because the damn house plot was stressing me out so much. We gotta get those jerk off ghosts out of there!
Speaking of weed, oh my god, Marcy! Stop smoking weed! There’s a time and a place for a jazz cigarette and this is not it! Don’t be leaving your grandma alone in the surreal haunted house so you can go roll a joint. Don’t do it! And definitely don’t smoke that shit. That’s not going to help you remain calm and collected. And to Marcy’s grandparents: I think you should probably sell this house. I know you want to retire somewhere familiar and all that, but this house is past salvaging. So many times these characters should’ve packed up and left and they fully don’t. Please remove yourself from this situation. This concludes my advice to fictional characters in a predetermined narrative.
Was The Invisible Mother actually good and scary or was I just high? Can’t it be both? This film showed a lot of creativity, ambition and understanding of horror. It certainly understood what I was scared of. It’s an unashamedly weird movie. For all that it has clear references, The Invisible Mother also isn’t quite like anything else I’ve ever seen. I’d love to see what these filmmakers could do with a bigger budget. Because they made shit pretty weird for cheap. I hope with a bigger budget, they could make something so weird I’d have to find a stronger adjective to describe it.
Overall rating: 7.2/10
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