During the massive 1996 Rio storm, firefighter Ana and her team must evacuate a collapsing nursing home, but the mysterious residents have other sinister plans.
Good cosmic horror starts in minor possible ways and unravels, bit by bit, into the revelation of a colossal god monster towering underneath. The sense of scale marks some of the best cosmic horror, and Lovecraft was the best at that kind of horror by showing idyllic New English countryside and the horrors lurking underneath. Luckily, we live in a world inspired by Lovecraft rather than determined to remake his work repeatedly. Some cosmic horror goes straight for the jugular with its massive Ancient One, while some build their tension. Seeing newcomers take on the genre feels like a breath of fresh air as the New English countryside gets replaced by all sorts of exotic locales. “A Mother’s Embrace” feels like the perfect entry into that kind of horror with a tight emotional tie-in and the type of sensational reveal held off until the very narrow end, making it a worthy entry into a new age cosmic horror.
Marjorie Estiano plays Ana, a firefighter who recently returned to her squad after a sixty-day mental health leave, who gets a call to a retirement home in the middle of the great storm of 1996 in Rio de Janeiro. She and her three squad mates assess the ancient mansion crumbling underneath their very feet as dangerous and attempt to evacuate the elderly and their caretakers except… They don’t want to leave the house. One by one, the firefighters disappear within the cracked concrete walls of the elegant mansion, leaving Ana to fend for herself against increasingly suspicious elderly folk. Its not enough to escape. When she discovers a child hidden away by the staff, she must rescue the young girl and escape the clutches of the violent cult inside as they attempt to communicate with “something” living underneath them, something only the waters of a great storm can resurrect.
It’s the perfect kind of locked-house movie that unfolds neatly into a brisk ninety-minute thrill ride into this spooky mansion. Estiano commands her role as Ana with a brusque vulnerability. She’s haunted by the image of her mother, who tried to murder-suicide the two of them when she was just seven years old. The apparition doesn’t factor into the creepy house but serves as her motivator. She butts heads against Javier Drolas’ Ulisses, the administrator of this ad hoc retirement home and creepy doctor overall, as well as Angelo Ribelo’s Drica, the old-crone owner of the house. The antagonists hot and cold her even as they stalk her teammates from afar.
A movie like this has to play carefully with the monster at the center of it all. Sure, twisty knotted tentacles slide around the parapets and hallways of the mansion, but rarely do they play into the danger until the grand finale. Instead, it mischievously diverts the team members, knocking down radios, tapping shoulders, and snatching away unsuspecting firefighters. Minor visual effects amplify the mystery here, often making a scene feel much more terrifying. For anyone worried, the tentacles are merely a tease. Don’t worry: we’ll see this monster in all its glory in a spectacular finale. The special effects always leave the creature just out of focus to help take the edge off CGI, which might feel underbaked without the smoke and mirrors. It’s a movie that knows how to throw its punches when it comes to CGI, and that speaks volumes about the agility of this film.
The movie has a solid emotional core, and that core comes into play at a bright moment late in its runtime. It’s the kind of inspired decision that doesn’t directly tie into the plot but provides stakes for the rest of the movie that reenergizes the back half. It’s incredibly smart and tells while also keeping the audience engaged. I found myself easing forward into my chair to assess and watch the finale unfold after such a reveal. It shows the director and writing team’s understanding that this kind of horror is not just about the monster but the emotions behind the protagonist. That decision to go back inside the house is just as crucial as any three-eyed tentacle beast living in the sewers of Rio.
The house contains most of the central action, and every bit feels textured and layered like the creepy house it needs to be. Rooms feel leaky, and bars over every window make us wonder who they’re trying to keep out (or in). The production design intentionally conjures up images and prompts questions that never get answered, such as a series of photos that might hint at Nazi origins to the place but never seem to answer them. That’s for the best. The production design shows us the backstory we need to intuit the alarmingly more dangerous place it is. It leaves the telling in the script to more logical and emotion-oriented choices rather than dumping backstory into a moody script.
“A Mother’s Embrace” has everything a good cosmic horror story needs: a wounded protagonist, a dark and moody aesthetic, lots of thunder and rain, a lurking beast, and a worshipping cult. It adds a layer of Portuguese to spruce up the genre in a much-needed direction of ingenuity. Director Cristian Ponce clearly knows how to wield their budget, delivering unsettling moods and occasional scares. I was entranced from beginning to end with this perfect addition to an infamous genre.
“A Mother’s Embrace” recently had its World Premiere on October 6th at Beyond Fest XII
10k
20k
1.5k
2.2k