Final Rating: 1.5/5
A sudden illness strikes a family’s matriarch, reuniting her children back to take care of her and her estate in The Voices of Our Mother. Mark O’Brien (listen to our interview with O’Brien)–director, writer, and one of those children–concocts a horror film more concerned with the tension between family members than trying to make the audience jump out of their seat. Tempers flare as the four adult relatives reunite amidst less than ideal circumstances.
Mark O’Brien’s film is a family drama where the tension is both inspired and explained by a possession in the vein of The Exorcist. The film opens by explaining how evil originates from “the ruination of good,” which unfolds like a cascade of dominos trickling down to the four children of Sheila McCarthy’s Harriet.
The four children (O’Brien, Georgina Reilly, Carolina Bartczak (listen to our interview with Bartczak), and Alex Ozerov-Meyer) are troubled. They were traumatized and abused during childhood by their parents and the seeds of evil have infected their personalities. They can’t spend more than a few minutes together without hurling insults and bickering. Naturally, they’re asked to be their mother’s caretakers as the medical professionals don’t know what to do about her condition.
That’s what O’Brien’s film latches onto: the breeding of evil and how it’s passed from one person to the next. The conundrum of causality and relationships is a twisting puzzle. The parents abuse the children, who in turn abuse their children, who in turn abuse their children. The cycle is endless. At some point, we’re forced to wonder how much of who we are is our own fault?
The film tries to answer that question through the lens of faith. How much of that answer is a metaphor is up for debate. In the face of demonic possession, the solution the film presents is one of absolution and prayer. Which, if the message is metaphorical, would likely translate to forgiveness. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but perhaps a necessary one. Some of the greatest literary stories position forgiveness for one who has wronged you as a form of salvation. It’s frequently presented as the essence of being a better person.
As powerful as the message might be, the film fails to support it. The score blares through the sound system when the film wants to scare you, because the visuals are too gray and drab to be relied on. The color palette is sparse. The lighting and staging lack dynamism. Some of the sets feel like they belong in a different film. Meanwhile, the repetitive sniping between the four siblings is too stagnant to remain interesting.
Despite the ways the film falls short, the cast is steady and strong, looking and feeling every bit the part. Reilly’s Annika and McCarthy’s Harriet were the main standouts, but there’s only so much they could do with the dialogue they were given.
Visually and sonically, The Voices of Our Mother lets down its compelling themes. Mark O’Brien’s skills behind the camera are uneven and his dialogue fails to capitalize on the film’s message. A film filled with irredeemable characters and jarring creative decisions, Voices is more compelling in hindsight than it is while watching it.
Thank you to Route504 for the screener.
