You Are Not My Mother (2021) Review

Char (Hazel Doupe) is a bright young girl who is managing to shine in her studies despite being the outsider in her class and having to cope with her fragile mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken). After one particularly fractious drive to school, Angela announces that she can’t take it any more and promptly goes missing but when she returns unexpectedly, Char’s initial relief gives way to a feeling that something is even more wrong than before and that she will have to confront her family’s past to find the answers she requires if she is to have any hope of saving her mother…

Writer/director Cait Dolan’s feature film debut is a masterclass in claustrophobic atmosphere and simmering tension. The opening sequence, featuring a slow, ominous crawl towards a baby in a buggy (and the ensuing strangeness), sets the tone perfectly for the subsequent hour and a half and its masterful control of inescapable, terrifying dread. This is a story which doesn’t race to reveal its secrets and every single detail matters, no matter how mundane it might first appear.

Even before the return of Angela, a great deal of care is taken to establish the brittle structure of Char’s family and the uncertainty which breeds from it. Grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie) shows herself to be there for Char in the absence of consistent guidance from Angela but even she seems oddly distant and the difficult relationship between Rita and Angela becomes even more so upon Angela’s reappearance, for reasons which will eventually become apparent.

The subplot concerning Char’s school life is equally important, giving further depth to our protagonist’s problems with the introduction of a local gang which looks upon her as an easy target to bully for various non-crimes including a facial birthmark which possesses its own tale of legend around the estate. It’s in these clashes where Char paradoxically finds a friend in Suzanne (Jordanne Jones) as the two find common ground even as vicious classmate Kelly (Katie White) continues her reign of terror as only an unchecked teenager can.

The choice of location plays into the proceedings very nicely, the Dublin housing estate’s slightly run down environs being an ideal place for the supernatural to invade the ordinary world. It’s somewhere that doesn’t appear to be cared about a great deal and the idea that demons could sneak into a largely forgotten place is a powerful one.

You Are Not My Mother takes its drive from not only its keenly observed script but a cast full of memorable female characters matched by equally superb performances. Doupe is incredible, giving a sympathetic portrayal of the psychologically battered but unbowed Char, her silences speaking just as much as her dialogue. Bracken is just as impressive, evolving over the course of the movie into a presence that feels dangerous even when she’s out of shot.

Elsewhere, Jordanne Jones is excellent, transforming from reluctant bully to confidante and would-be protector with awkward realism and tough warmth. The scenes between Suzanne and Char allow for brief respite from the steadily enveloping sense of doom while still propelling the plot and paving the way for a deeply unsettling final act in which Char’s world is shattered by another seismic shift as the shakily constructed artifice of her past few years finally crumbles away to unveil the terrifying reality of her situation.

Steeped in Celtic mythology but without the need to lecture its audience apart from a knowing, darkly fun, expository sequence on a school trip to a museum, Cait Dolan feeds the viewer just enough information to have them both intrigued and worried and then takes it from there, hinting that something nightmarish is around the corner. And oh, is it nightmarish, as Char confronts…well, let’s not give that away here. Suffice to say, there’s a skilfully evoked feeling of prolonged, seat-grabbing fear.

Confident in its reliance on deep-seated anxiety over cheap jump scares – and there are so many opportunities here where a lesser filmmaker would have opted for the hand on the shoulder or something lurching into frame – You Are Not My Mother is both a stunning horror movie and a moving, non-judgemental look at the mental issues so many of us experience.

It could be seen as a slow burn but not a frame is wasted and there’s never a sense that the story is killing time because it has little to say across its runtime. Quite the opposite, this fractured family fable has so much detail that it will surely reward repeated viewing. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that female-led horror is here to stay. It’s fascinating, it’s emotionally charged, it’s bloody scary and it’s a stunner of a feature debut for Cait Dolan.

I’m sure it will be one of my favourites of 2022.

Signature Entertainment and FrightFest Presents release You Are Not My Mother in UK Cinemas and Digital 8 April

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