Amazon has released the first trailer for its horror film Goodnight Mommy, starring Naomi Watts. Goodnight Mommy is a re-imagination of the 2014 Austrian film of the same name. Watts plays a mother whose face is wrapped in bandages following an alleged cosmetic surgery procedure. The film will premiere on Prime Video on September 16.
Upon greeting her twin boys, Watts' character mentions that her appearance is "nothing to be afraid of." However, her character's erratic behavior soon leaves her twin sons, played by Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Litte Lies), questioning if the woman in the bandages is actually their mother. Her odd behavior includes smoking in the bathroom, seductively dancing in front of mirror, and ripping up a drawing from her sons. She also sets up new house rules that seem unlike her, like no running or shouting in the house or going into her bedroom or the barn.
The Amazon film is directed by Matt Sobel, and is a follow-up to his directorial feature film debut Take Me to the River. Most recently, Sobel directed episodes of Netflix's Brand New Cherry Flavor.The screenplay was written by Kyle Warren (Lethal Weapon television series). Goodnight Mommy also stars Peter Hermann (Younger). V.J. Guibal, Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Joshua Astrachan and David Kaplan produced, with Watts, Sobel, Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, Kyle Warren, Derrick Tseng, Sébastien Beffa and François Yon serving as executive producers.
Naomi Watts will appear in Ryan Murphy's second installment of Feud. The second season of the anthology series will revolve around high-society women in Truman Capote's life. Watts will play Barbara "Babe" Paley.
The Original Goodnight Mommy
The original film was co-directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival before making a successful run at multiple other festivals. The critically acclaimed movie quickly gained a cult following. During an interview, Fiala told Indiewire that the film's biggest compliment was two people fainting while watching some of the original's later scenes. The National Board of Review named Goodnight Mommy one of the Top 5 Foreign Language Films of 2015.
Sobel's remake of the recent film may seem odd to some, but the director wanted to explore the story's psychological aspects. Sobel told People:
“I saw an opportunity to preserve this unique mixture while injecting a completely new set of themes we wanted to explore. If I had to point to a key difference between the films, I’d say the original is more interested in tone and aesthetic, while our reimagining favors character and psychology.”