You Are Not My Mother

Char's mother Angela is acting strange. Angela rarely emerges from the bedroom, has trouble completing routine tasks like getting groceries and driving Char to school, and she is getting worse. The thing is Char really needs her mom right now. She is being bullied at school and needs someone to turn to for support and advice. This is when Angela unexpectedly disappears and then reappears in a hostile mood.

You Are Not My Mother is an intriguing, quirky, and female driven dive into Irish folklore, the supernatural, mental illness, and the rougher side of Dublin. Because of a low film budget there is not a lot of depth to the dialogue or acting, but there are bright spots too like the female focused story and the acting of Hazel Doupe (Char).

World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival.

I don't mind slow-burn horror, especially if it has deep nuances, interesting plot points, and a captivating atmosphere. You Are Not My Mother has some of those qualities, but driving at a really snail's pace apparently only makes the film has difficulties living up to its promising build-up.

Unlike some other reviews suggest: this movie is not boring. And Samhain / Halloween was most certainly around in Ireland and celebrated with bonfires etc. A long, long time before this movie was set.

In my opinion, You Are Not My Mother is a simple, atmospheric horror movie. It has the feel of the Samhain / Halloween time of year in Ireland. For the most part the acting is strong. I found the scenes between the mother and daughter to be unsettling in a quiet way; which made them all the more frightening.

It is edge of your seat from opening scenes to the end credits? No. Does it scream big budget, with lots of effects? No.

But it doesn't need to. It does a damn good job of marrying folklore / mythology with horror, while also touching on the subjects of mental health and family relationships.

What a great hidden gem of a film which needs to be heard a lot more. Hazel Doupe plays an amazing role as Char and the connection between her and her 'so called mother' was astonishing. The way you could tell Char loved Angela so much and the agony she had to say "You are not my Mother" must of really hurt.

If anybody wants to see it go watch it on Netflix whilst you have the chance. The only reason I ranked it 7 star is because I didn't feel that scared for a horror and felt more of thriller.

It really shows how mental illness on parent can affect their loved ones especially their children.

I was expecting an outlandish American horror from the description, I wasn't expecting an Irish movie about witchcraft and family woes.

I was expecting to see a few negative reviews, calling this out for being slow and boring, personally I would ignore them, and go into this with an open mind.

This film is deep, well measured, and very atmospheric. The story builds slowly, as does the action, naturally there's a crescendo at the end.

Very well acted, nicely filmed, and some nice, thoughtful, gritty visuals.

I was quite impressed with this, it held my attention, it surprised, and I liked the storyline, 7/10.