The Dark Mother is a film that overstays its welcome, taking what should have been a tight 20-minute story and dragging it out into a bloated 90-minute experience. While the premise is simple-a mother's ghost protecting her child-the film quickly becomes repetitive, recycling the same scares and emotional beats with little variation.
The horror elements add nothing beyond reinforcing the same message: she's protecting her child. The problem is, the film keeps hammering this point over and over without offering any real depth or surprises. We've seen similar stories done countless times in Thai cinema, and The Dark Mother brings nothing new to the table. That said, I do appreciate the film for contributing to the growing Khmer film industry and drawing audiences back to local productions.
Unfortunately, the screenwriter seemed unsure of how to develop the story beyond its basic premise. The ending doesn't feel like a proper resolution, and the performances from the cast are lackluster, making it difficult to stay emotionally invested. One glaring inconsistency is the skeleton-her death supposedly happened just weeks prior, yet her body has already decayed to bare bones.
Ultimately, The Dark Mother is a slow, repetitive watch that fails to justify its runtime. The entire story can be summed up in a single sentence, yet the film stretches it out with little to no added substance. Instead of an engaging horror-drama, it feels like a synopsis turned into a full-length film-without the necessary depth to sustain it.
