No doubt most of you have already heard all the buzz surrounding the new foreign language horror film, Goodnight Mommy. The Austrian film’s trailer in particular has been the subject of many discussions calling it the scariest movie trailer of all time! Now that’s not to say the film is the scariest film ever but even some viewers have called it that.
Now I’m not generally one to jump on a particular bandwagon but I thought in this instance we should take a look at the trailer and try to form some type of conclusion. I’ve seen the trailer but not the film and I have to say the film does contain some genuine scary moments but to say it’s the scariest trailer ever? I don’t think so.
The job of a well-made trailer is to elicit interest for a film, to make the viewer want to go see the movie without giving away all the good stuff. Too many trailers these days give away far too much information and show all the best parts of the film in just the trailer running time. The trailer for Goodnight Mommy has me really craving to see the film now, if for nothing else, to see what all the hubbub is about – job well done. Even though the trailer and film is in German language, you don’t even notice because it has you enthralled from the start. The use of ordinary sound such as blinds being closed or the wind blowing through the weeds is unnerving. The images from the film are also genuinely creepy. It is a very well-made trailer, in fact, it might be in the top ten trailers of all-time.
But for me, more often than not, when a horror movie creates so much buzz and hype about how scary and well-made it is, by the time I see it, it usually falls short and does not live up to my perceived expectations. Case in point – 2014’s The Babadook. Will Goodnight Mommy follow through with the goods? I’ll have to wait and see when it hits on September 11 via RADiUS-TWC.
Watch the trailer and tell us in the comments section below what you think. Is Goodnight Mommy the scariest trailer ever?
Goodnight Mommy
In theaters on September 11, 2015
Written and directed by Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz
Cast includes Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz, Hans Escher, Elfriede Schatz
Plot Synopsis
In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine-year-old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before, and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is. What ensues is a terrifying observational struggle with fatal consequences on par with The Shining and Dead Ringers.
