10 Greatest Horror Films That Don't Rely On Jump Scares
5. Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh, Ich Seh) (2014)
Children in horror films are a recipe for terror. The Shining has the Grady twins, The Innocents is home to sinister siblings Flora and Miles, and in Austrian horror Goodnight Mommy has its identical twins, Elias and Lukas, who take the spotlight.
A film that initially grabbed mainstream attention thanks to a trailer that was dubbed as the scariest of all time (though that’s debatable), Goodnight Mommy came to us courtesy of writer-director duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. The plot follows a divorced mother (Susanne Wuest) return to the family’s idyllic country home after an operation leaves her face covered in bandages.
However, the twins aren’t too happy to see their mother come home as they begin to suspect that this person isn’t their mother at all, but an imposter - a suspicion they believe to be confirmed by her unwillingness to acknowledge Lukas.
As mistrust heightens, the boys resort to extreme measures to get the truth about this woman's identity and the whereabouts of their mother. But not everything is what it seems. With a recent tragedy hanging over the family's home, the real monster isn’t what viewers first suspect.