The Dead Mother
Directed by Juanma Bajo Ulloa
Ismael (Karra Elejalde, Timecrimes) breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later, Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognised him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her, a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfil his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever… A gothic thriller with pitch-black humour that recalls the Coen brothers, Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s sophomore feature won a host of prestigious international awards and was a precursor to the Spanish genre explosion.
A criminal is tormented by the memory of a murder.
Cast: Karra Elejalde, Ana Álvarez, Lio, Silvia Marsó
Member Reviews
I have to rate this more harshly than I ever have anything on this site, only because this simply does not belong on Shudder. Though it's beautifully made, and strange, and not a bad film overall, it's just not a horror movie by any imagining. Tonally, it reminds me a lot of Don't Look Now, in the lingering mystery that doesn't go anywhere ultimately satisfying, but the couple at its centre are wholly unlikeable and the story completely unsympathetic. I'd recommend this for fans of quiet, strange, occasionally violent foreign films, but absolutely not for hardcore horror fans.
terrible
I haven't watched this yet, just came to comment the cover always reminds me of da joker lol
Goodness how odd. Loved it.
Meh. Wasn’t particularly thrilling