10 Subtle Ways Horror Movies Made You Feel Uneasy
6. Misdirection & Imagination - Goodnight Mommy
Whether it's Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's 2014 film or Matt Sobel's 2022 remake, Goodnight Mommy is a horror tale that truly stays with viewers after a first watch.
The film follows the experience of young twin brothers who find themselves trapped in their home with their mother, who seems to have changed after having some kind of surgery on her face. Creepy and dark events soon begin to happen, and yet it is the way the mother's face is hidden throughout the film by bandages that leave viewers with a true sense of dread and unease.
It's a very effective method of scaring the viewer through not revealing what the true horror actually is. The unnamed mother's face is hidden and so much is left to the imagination, with the scenes in which she removes her mask cleverly shot so that we never see exactly what she looks like - in turn leaving us open to all manner of possibilities and fear-inducing ideas.
Of course, that's also before you get to the final gut-punching twist of Goodnight Mommy; a twist that's one of the most memorable of the past decade.