Goodnight Mommy—Ich seh, Ich seh—is a 2014 Austrian horror film directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Set in the Austrian countryside, the film follows a mother, played by Susanne Wuest, who’s undergone plastic surgery. Returning home in bandages, her twin boys—acting newcomers Elias and Lukas Shwarz—don’t believe she is who she says she is. That’s all we’ll say.
In an interview over Skype, the two directors discussed today’s horror film industry and the realistic terror of their first fiction feature.
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The Creators Project: After the film’s US trailer was released, the internet was buzzing with headlines like “Scariest Movie Ever.” Was this your intention for the film?
Veronika: We didn’t want to make the scariest film. The film is uncomfortable to watch. You want to watch it, but at the same time, you can’t look any more. That’s what we like.
Severin: We wanted to make a film that we wanted to see. There were no marketing ideas whatsoever and so we were surprised that a US company bought it. We were very happy that people seemed to like it. That surprised me.
It’s received a lot of awards on the film festival circuit and is now the Austrian entry for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ at the Oscars. Why did it surprise you?
Veronika: In Austria, there isn’t much of a horror film tradition. When our film came out there, people didn’t care so much. So it was really funny when the US trailer went big and a whole wave of attention came back to Austria. People asked when the film would come out in theatres and we had to say, ‘It was already!’
This is just one of the countless creepy scenes from the film. Image courtesy of Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion.
Why is it rare to find Austrian horror films?
Severin: No one cared about horror films in the 80s and 90s and Austria wanted to represent itself as an art film country. It was thought that horror films had no stories and were filled with clichés. We think horror films offer a chance to tell breaking stories about society.
Most Austrian films are made with state funding. If there’s this aversion to horror cinema, how did you manage to get your film financed?
Severin: As our film is not pure horror, we somehow managed to get funding. Maybe the mixture of art house and horror suits us. We like films that take the stories and characters seriously. They’re not just there to scare you but also talk about serious issues.
And so what issues does Goodnight Mommy tackle?
Severin: For us, it’s about the question of identity and what makes you the person you appear to be.
Veronika: It’s also about family. About parenting. About the lost of trust. About all the pieces within a family and how they communicate.
What are your families like?
Severin: I have a brother with whom I’m really close with. My mom always dressed us the same and we were mistaken for twins all the time.
Veronika: I have two boys.
I can see a bit of inspiration there! But what’s behind the film’s creepy premise?
Severin: We were watching a reality television program where people get plastic surgery. These mothers are separated from their families for three months or so, and get a new nose, new teeth, new clothes and so on. They’re eventually reunited with their families and it’s meant to be this very happy television moment, but if you look at the eyes of the children, you can feel some kind of irritation when they first see their mothers. There was even one episode where a child grabs her father and says, ‘This is not my mom.’ That was the start of Goodnight Mommy.
Family and identity are very relatable themes. Did you do any empirical research beforehand?
Severin: We talked to a lot of children’s psychiatrists. They said they had seen things that were worse.
Elias Schwarz and Lukas Schwarz keep their first names playing characters ‘Elias’ and ‘Lukas’ in ‘Goodnight Mommy’. Image courtesy of Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion.
Tell me about casting Elias Shwarz and Lukas Shwarz—the twins.
Veronika: We called schools in Austria and asked if they had twins. We collected 130 pairs of twins in our office, which was quite scary, and at the end we had three possible pairs that were imaginable for the film. In the last audition we tied our lead actress to a chair and told the children that this person had kidnapped their mom and they had to find out where their mom was. Two pairs of twins kind of shouted at the actress. The third, our twin pair, instantly grabbed a pencil and poked it into the actress’ arm. That’s a courageous thing for children as they didn’t know the actress and had to overcome that kind of respect for an adult.
But they didn’t have any previous acting experience. What was it like working with them?
Severin: Easy. We wanted to be flexible. When it came to disturbing the film’s budget, we said the most important thing for us was to have time. We wrote most of the scenes in one location.
The location is beautiful, especially when shot on 35mm. How did you choose it?
Veronika: We wanted to have a real house. Luckily, we found this one, which is in northern Austria.
Severin: We had to rent it from the people who lived there. We refurbished it as well, which was actually more expensive than building a stage house.
Veronika: But this was important for the children since we wanted them to feel normal without anything reminding them that, ‘I’m an actor now.’
Elias and Lukas don’t believe the bandaged lady is their mother. Image courtesy of Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion.
The children have to act out some pretty graphic scenes throughout the film.
Severin: It’s not making it any more pleasant than it would be in reality, but not about exaggerating it either. The children wouldn’t take a chainsaw and chop off their mother’s head, for instance. We simply wanted to make it feel real. I think that makes it more terrifying.
But the boys haven’t seen the film?
Veronika: We told their parents that we were making a kind of horror film and they trusted us. They didn’t read the script. We showed them the film at our first screening and, fortunately, they were very proud. It was a fantastic experience for us but the mother said that the children mustn’t see the film. We ended up inviting them to watch the first ten minutes and they were kind of frightened actually! They thought it wasn’t as boring as it seemed at the time. That’s the power of cinema.
You’ve just come back from the States after Goodnight Mommy’s US release. What was the reception like from the film industry there?
Severin: When we showed the film to an American audience they said, ‘Who made that dead cat?’ I said, ‘It’s a dead cat’. They didn’t believe us.
Veronika: We shot in sequence. We didn’t have the parents around. I don’t think shooting like that would have been possible in America. It’s completely different there.
Severin: But that’s the problem I think. We’ve talked to lots of European filmmakers that have wanted to do their next film in the States, then they move there, and every new idea is turned down. The producers say, ‘It’s too risky,’ so you can’t do the film you want to do.
What will your next project be?
Severin: We have a few ideas at different stages. There are some projects that we have to do in Austria because they’re Austrian topics, but some that might be two big for us and we would have to do it as a European production. We know that we would only go to the US if the producer could guarantee us the freedom to do the film we want.
Mommy and Lukas. Image courtesy of Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion
Goodnight Mommy was released in US theatres on September 11th, 2015 and is in theaters nationwide.
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