Prime Video has now released the official trailer for their forthcoming slow-burn thriller Goodnight Mommy, after the release of the first-look photographs earlier this week. A remake of a classic Austrian horror film of the same name, the trailer for Matt Sobel’s adaption shows the same rising anxiety, this time with Naomi Watts in the bandages.
The young brothers Nicholas and Cameron Crovetti (The Boys) in Goodnight Mommy are put through a horrible ordeal after being separated from their mother (Watts).
When they arrive at their mother’s remote country house, the brothers are startled to see that all except her eyes and mouth are covered by bandages. Something doesn’t seem right, despite her assurances that the bandages are necessary after recent cosmetic surgery. Because of their mother’s new and peculiar regulations, the boys feel uneasy and suspicious. Suddenly, not only is her bedroom off-limits but so is the barn, which is both strange and unexpected. Their mother has now taken to smoking cigarettes in the toilet while refusing to remove the bandages from her kids’ wounds, and she has also destroyed artwork she had been given by her sons.
The boys begin to worry that the lady behind the bandages isn’t really their mother due to her seclusion and the minor variations in her temperament compared to their loving mother. At the beginning of the trailer, one of the brothers is shown racing across a field to escape the blaze that has broken out at the mystery barn. There is an abrupt shift in mood as we follow Elias and Lukas as they are taken to a remote country home. The austere, contemporary décor of the house in Goodnight, Mom! instantly evokes the mood of the classic film. It exudes a chill that echoes in their once-loving mother’s current demeanour.
“You’re early,” she tells her sons when they first lay eyes on their mother in bandages. Sobel’s use of shadow and light is on show in the teaser, with Watt’s character remaining in the dark even when the gauze is removed. As the song intensifies, we witness the origins of the boys’ worry in the mother’s seemingly innocuous behaviours. Interspersed with views of the twins watching from a distance are scenes of her bathing in a tub while wearing a facemask made from her bandages, smoking in the hallways at night, and dancing in front of a mirror.
The thought of a child being afraid of their mother is enough to make your hair stand on end, but then things take a dramatic turn as the mother is shown literally shedding her own skin. Sobel’s remake is his second feature picture, and it’s based on an adaptation by Kyle Warren. Authors/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, along with Watts, Warren, and Sobel, as well as Derrick Tseng, Sébastien Beffa, and François Yon serve as executive producers for the Goodnight Mommy remake. On September 16th, Goodnight Mommy will make its debut on Prime Video.