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Reviews
The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
Tale of Extreme Family Disfunction
Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Human Centipede, The Eyes of My Mother is a hideously depraved tale that will have you squirming and cringing in disgust and unease as you bear witness to events that play out like a serial killers dream date. In a familial setting of mental illness wrapped in the tradition of a Spanish black and white horror film, it creates its mood through stark high contrast images depicting heinous acts of bodily mutilation, feelings of insufferable loneliness, and the long infinite torture of those unlucky enough to be lured into the unassuming farm house of horrors where most of the film takes place. So horrible are the main character's actions that you begin to feel sorry for the serial killer who started this spiral of unspeakable events, and now lays chained, blinded, and mute in the old barn.
What is the purpose of a film like this? And I say this with the absolute conviction that this film was brilliant and did its job. I will have nightmares tonight after watching it. The themes of family, mental illness, isolation, and upbringing are the underlying scum in this stagnant pond of insanity-inducing existence. Worthy subjects depicted with finesse and a minimalist's attention to detail. In the end, it is too real and unbearably ratchets up the discomfort level to the point of illness, feeling sick to the stomach.
At its basic, The Eyes of My Mother is a tale of family disfunction. The father is an emotional void. After finding a man bludgeoning his wife to death in their bathtub, he takes care of the situation, then makes dinner and watches Bonanza on TV without a sliver of notion of his day being interrupted. The Mother is on the opposite end of this spectrum and, from what little we see of her, seems to be more alive as a veterinarian who dissects animals and shows the daughter what makes up the living. The daughter, being alone and without friends at a very young age, funnels these two personalities into her own psyche: the cold and calculated killer who knows her way around a butcher table who can muster up a modicum of charm to lure in her victims.
Like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or any number of true-crime ripped from the headlines stories, the film fascinates while daring you to look one step further into frightening events that could be happening in your neighbor's backyard.