The Eyes of My Mother

I love it

The black and white and the Portuguese fado really set a great atmosphere in this movie. It sets the stage for a horrifying and disturbing story. But until near the end of the movie nothing actually happens, except for some background story. The few dialogues are monosyllabic, scenes are cut just when they start to get interesting, and the entire movie is interspersed with long dragging static scenes and exaggerated time leaps. Character development here is practically zero. When the real substance of the plot begins, the movie is 20 minutes from the end. The choices made here are confusing. The entire movie is about 75 minutes long, and although they abuse static scenes (making it feel a lot longer, by the way), they couldn't spare 3 or 5 more minutes to make a decent ending. The ending is clear to the viewer, but as with all interesting scenes, it is cut short just before the climax.

Spellbinding tale of an unwell, isolated young woman who has no idea that she's unwell. Just a mesmerizing performance by Kika Magalhães in the lead, and shot in exquisite black and white. It's a very dark, off-putting movie, and it's definitely not for everyone. Director Nicolas Pesce makes great use of the film's short running time (under 80 minutes) and relatively claustrophobic atmosphere. VERY well done.

This is not a brilliant movie. In my opinion, it's not even a good movie. But it achieves what it supposedly set out to do, and that was to portray life from the point of view of a lonely psychopath. And that portrayal is absolutely excruciating. Having grown up on an isolated farm, loneliness is always Fransisca's first and foremost problem, and we the audience are made to feel that in agonizing detail. The movie feels slow, the few other characters have short screen time and are usually mute, and the movie is in drab black and white. Being a psychopath, Fransisca feels absolutely nothing for anybody else, and has no qualms about what she does to others to fulfill her own desires. Once again, we the audience, are made to suffer 72 minutes of this abominable character, and wonder if she is so loathed does she have any sense of self-loathing too? Does Fransisca represent a psychopath? Probably. Is the role played well by the lead actress? Yes. Is the movie worth watching? I would say NO, not unless you have to reference it for a term paper in Psychology 101 or something. P.S. what is up with the title of this film? It has no bearing on the movie, believe me. Just because she misses Mom the most, and her Mom was an eye surgeon, doesn't mean you have to force 'Mother' and 'Eyes' in the title.

For people who are expecting a slasher or bloody and gore film then this isn't one for you... Probably one of the best films of this year and the cinematography in black and white is brilliant and just adds to the suspense of the film throughout. Personally I loved that this film made me feel uncomfortable the entire time never knowing what was going to happen. It makes you feel sympathetic to the main character but also for the rest of the cast as well in a messed up way! I am not going to let anything away with this film but for commercial horror fans this isn't for you. Think the anti Christ without sex but with a stunning female lead who work solo through out and make us fall in love yet hate and also feel Sorry for her all at the same time! A must see

I've seen many horror movies before; none was sick, empty and boring as this one. I recommend not to waste your time by watching! The people are very strange and sick. Are there in the whole world that kind? What percentage?! thanks.

Based on the screening at CIFF. The film opens with a lone figure, a chain dragging from her ankle, staggering down a desolate country road. A truck appears; the driver tries to warn the figure off the road, but she collapses... So begins the equivalent of a lyrical tone-poem of a film. The plot revolves around the life of a woman who witnessed the brutal murder of her mother as a child, and the subsequent events, combined with her near total isolation throughout her entire life, leave her with a desperate need to be loved by someone, anyone, in any way, without any regard for the potentially devastating effects her actions might have on those unlucky enough to cross her path... Shot entirely in black-and-white, this movie is a beauty to behold from start to finish. A series of vignettes unfold the protagonist's journey from an innocent child to a grown woman who has committed atrocities for the sake of love, and it is a testament to the strength of the storytelling that the film maintains sympathy for the protagonist even as it demonstrates the lengths to which she will go to achieve her ill-defined goals. Fair warning: while there is relatively little gore, some viewers may find the themes in this film disturbing and potentially triggering. If this doesn't describe you, and you aren't afraid of a little art-house in your horror, this film is well worth checking out.

The Eyes of My Mother tells the story of a young girl as she is subjected to a horrific and violent event that leads to her mother being killed at her family's remote farmhouse. As the father comes home, he knocks out her killer and decides to hold him hostage in a barn. Sounds good, right? Wrong! The Eyes of My Mother is one of the most pretentious and idiotic attempts at creating an atmospheric film that I've ever seen. Filmed in the stark beauty of black and white, the film never exceeds more than 60 shots and each shot lingers for far too long in hopes of creating tension. It doesn't. Instead, the film tries to make the most out of its paper thin plot by stretching out everything. The dialog is stretched, the shots are stretched, everything feels stretched so thin that it is hard to even determine whether the film had enough in its tank to fill the short runtime. At 76 minutes, this film should have been snappy and very intriguing. It ends up feeling like 176 minutes. It's painfully slow and boring and it is clear that director Nicolas Pesce was determined to make a feature length film on a subject that a short film could have handsomely supported. Overall, The Eyes of My Mother is one of the slowest and emptiest films I've ever seen. Despite its look and decent acting, the film suffers from a poor script and terrible pacing.

OK so this is my first review of a movie on IMDb. Usually i don't write reviews, but this movie is such an embaracing to the "supposed" horror genre. That i had to write a few lines. In the first place i don't understand the raving reviews about the movie. Really?? Do you even know what is a storyline, or good acting, or movie Direction? Just because the movie is shot in black and has slow tempo it doesn't make it a work of art, nevertheless a good (horror) movie. In the second place what was that? A movie really? Do you call that a movie? This was just a total mess, dumb, stupid, dull, full of bad clichés and wanabe pseudo artistic camera angles. This movie has no story at all, just a bunch of stupid actions that someone decided to write and film. Everything seems forced and its hardly convincing, the actors, the characters, the "story", even the music performed by Amália Rodrigues they achieved to murder. And to call this an horror genre...Please! More like a bad comedy.