The meticulously shot, psychological horror film, Mother Nocturna, written and directed by Daniele Campea, tackles themes of isolation, feminine rage and familial issues Freud would’ve drooled over.
The story centres around mother Agnese, a wolf biologist recently home after a stay at a psychiatric hospital. Doting husband and father, Riccardo, an empathetic doctor with Nosferatu-like undertones, mainly the bald head and black attire that make his already pallid skin appear more wan, accepts Agnese with open arms. Teen daughter and budding dancer, Arianna, is frightened of her mother’s psychosis rearing its ugly head once more. When the pandemic forces mother and daughter into seclusion, they are forced to confront the ever-widening schisms alive and well in their relationship.
Photographed in dark, dire tones, this slow burn eats into your psyche with a quietness interrupted only by expertly placed cuts of Arianna’s uninhibited nature of dance.
The use of camera movement and an unrelenting soundtrack gives a greater allure to the hypnotically rhythmic undulations Arianna puts on display. The gorgeous cinematography takes the audience from bright, illustrious landscapes deep into the claustrophobic belly of broodingly blocked interiors, furthering the disconnected feeling of our settings.
The mixture of slow reveals, gothic atmosphere and disconcerting sound design further force the audience into the laggard mental decline of Agnese until we, as well as the characters, seem stuck. Isolated. As if time froze for everyone and everything except for us.
Mother Nocturna is a great example of how the emotions of madness, anger, grief and depression are not always discovered through desperate acts of extroverted meltdowns. They can just as easily be hidden away in the shadows. Seething in almost perfect silence.
Mother Nocturna is available on VOD and digital as of September 27th, 2024
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