The Eyes of My Mother

A very annoying movie which tortures the viewer without any compromise, and does that without any superstitious element or jump-scare shit. And on a philosophical level it seems to meditate on the notion of body, memory, identity and violence. Main girl, as the victim of a founding violence, seeks retribution in vain producing more injustice as she distorts the memories and identities of people. Can be easily read through history, politics and violence. Creepy stylistic gore resembling "Angst".

Hypnotic, deeply unsettling horror movie benefits from a small cast of unknowns, and deliberate ambiguities in motivation, time-frame and location, alienating and setting its audience on-guard. Pesce is mostly discreet with explicit gore, favouring suggestion and insinuation, though the "money-shot" sequences are genuinely horrifying. Exceptional black & white cinematography emphasise the brutal landscape, and help Pesce drag his audience through a hideous nightmare. A quite amazing experience.

Like a Bela Tarr take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not sure it makes sense entirely, but then maybe that's not the point either, and it certainly has a mood that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. Or stitched, as the case may be.

Eerie, creepy, and nightmarish. (Abolish crying babies in arthouse horror movies, please).

Some people just live differently. Who are we to question their unique upbringing, their storied culture, their warped desire to rear other peoples' babbys (OPB, yeah you know me)? What I learned from this (and every other movie): If someone has a barn on their pristine pastoral property, there is a 90% chance that it has, at one time or another, been used to torture or imprison someone (most likely both).

Love this type of movie where not every answer or set up is really given to you. Why do we feel the need to be gifted everything in a story? Bonus points for being short so the concept didn't get played out

Pesce manages to work long shots with jarring edits to create an uneasy tension throughout the film. Magalhaes brings a wide-eyed intensity to the character. It's a beautiful, haunting work.

A horror film as if directed by Bela Tarr, or perhaps Michael Haneke circa The White Ribbon: slow, austere, grim, oppressively dark, shot in a high-contrast black-and-white to emphasize its otherwordliness as the characters violently grapple with each other at the edge of the world. As much as anything, about the internalized misogyny women are capable of carrying due to the circumstances of their adolescence.

Short and sweet, oppressively dark, and borderline comic in its matter of factness. The film's composition -- both visually and in the editing room -- is incredibly slick. I particularly love the jarring quick cuts, which hit you like a fist in the face. The story is cruel, generational, and seems to grasp at something about longing and abuse, but it's hard to see exactly where the motivations are -- outside of inflicting terror and body horror on the viewer, of course. Good debut either way.

The depravity and emotionless tone of the first few scenes had me itching to turn it off, but I stuck with it and was rewarded with an original, stylish, upsetting, slick piece of cinema about a secluded psychopath.

Black and white? It still works. A bit disturbing and deranged which worked really well.

Amusing.

This is an odd duck of a film to be sure, but one well worth your time if you're fascinated by the depths people can sink to in their dealings with their fellow humans. With this subject matter you could be forgiven for assuming this was bare bones film making, but nothing could be farther from the truth - it's artfully done; the pristine high contrast black and white photography is beautiful and the long slow takes add a menacing tone to the piece. It all adds up to a truly chilling experience.

Utterly empty, rote and joyless. About as bland and tasteless as a glass of water.

One of the sickness movies ive ever seen

good movie

I had to check out of this film at about the halfway point. There was just nothing that drew me into it. About the only thing that I can say this movie had going for it was that it was well shot, but I didn't fell like I knew anything about the story by the halfway point and I have been burned by that before so I just gave up. I hope the film turned out good by the end for anyone who got there, but I just couldn't make it through this film.

Pretentious and in color would have seemed a telefilm.

Monochromatic and quiet depravity create a wonderfully creepy horror tale. I suppose you cold easily compare this to Texas Chainsaw Massacre but without any aggressive energy. A great directorial debut.

Beautifuly haunting

The stuff of nightmares! In some scenes at least, such as the blind, rasping woman in chains locked in your attic. I found the first half fairly hard to follow, while the second half was almost too straightforward. So, it's too uneven and a little short. I think the cinematography was used to deliberately keep us in the dark. While few of its component parts are that good in a traditional sense, the overall effect is affecting and memorable - different at the very least.

Lost momentum during the second act and never rediscovered it. The introduction to Charlie was truly unnerving and I wish they could have kept that feeling of uneasiness throughout the movie. Beautifully shot - just a little discombobulated.

The Human Centipede's more successful, classy, charming step-sister.

Style > Substance

Slick execution, and the black and white works really well on this one, giving it a feel that is detached from time and reality. Many of the crucial moments happen off-screen, yet it's rarely confusing. Overall some clever film-making, with a somewhat weak plot that ultimately felt a little pointless and unfulfilling.