‘You Are Not My Mother’ Review
Stars: Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, Ingrid Craigie, Jordanne Jones, Paul Reid, Katie White, Florence Adebambo | Written and Directed by Kate Dolan
A North Dublin teenager suspects her mother may be afflicted by more than just a psychological condition in this striking horror debut from writer-director Kate Dolan. Cleverly blending folklore elements and relatable real-life issues, it’s an effective, unsettling chiller that will get under your skin.
Set in a grim-looking North Dublin housing estate, You Are Not My Mother opens with a disturbing prologue, centring on a pram on a deserted street with a crying baby inside. After a while, a woman takes the baby into the woods, where she lights a fire, and the child begins to cry again.
The story then cuts to the present day, where withdrawn teenager Char (Hazel Doupe) lives with her borderline disabled grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie) and her mother, Angela (Carolyn Bracken), who can barely get out of bed due to a debilitating depressive disorder. After disappearing for a brief period of time, Rita returns, seemingly a changed person. However, Char becomes more and more disturbed by her mother’s increasingly erratic behaviour, leading Rita to reveal a dark secret about their family history.
Dolan’s direction is assured throughout, allowing the story to unfold chiefly through Char’s perspective. That allows for an effective atmosphere of mystery and paranoia, as Char frequently overhears whispers in the kitchen between her grandmother and uncle (Paul Reid) and catches glimpses of disturbing images through half closed doors.
Similarly, Dolan pulls off a carefully calibrated balancing act, effectively allowing both the mental illness explanation and the supernatural explanation to exist side by side, with each one as scary and as unsettling as the other. Char’s problems don’t end at home either – the film exerts further unease and tension through the bullying she receives from her classmates.
Hazel Doupe is quietly terrific as Char (a splendidly symbolic shortening of Charlotte, given the red mark on her cheek), exuding heart-breaking vulnerability, coupled with a world weariness that’s almost painful to watch. Bracken is equally good as Angela, delivering a breath-takingly physical performance characterised by disconcertingly abrupt personality changes – as a result, she’s genuinely terrifying, as much for her unpredictability as anything else.
You Are Not My Mother is further heightened by Lauren Kelly’s superb production design work, drenching the family home in depressingly drab colours and textures – consequently, the moment when Angela suddenly appears in a colourful summer dress really has an impact. In addition, Narayan van Maele’s cinematography is filled with menacing shadows, mining them for effective tension in conjunction with Brendan Rehill’s accomplished sound design.
If there’s a misstep, it’s only that the impressive climax is followed by an ending that doesn’t land quite as hard as was presumably intended, but that’s a minor quibble that won’t detract from the film overall. That one note aside, You Are Not My Mother is a highly effective horror debut that marks out writer-director Kate Dolan as a serious genre talent to watch. Recommended.
**** 4/5
You Are Not My Mother is in cinemas and on digital now.
