Though the titles are eerily similar, you’re not going to want to get Goodnight Moon mixed up with Goodnight Mommy, a thriller starring Naomi Watts. They’re just a little different. No more nice bunny mom. Now, Watts is a creepy, bandaged-mother with a list of demands from her twin sons.
“I was hoping this could be our little secret,” Watts whispers to her boys in the trailer, lighting up a cigarette and pouring a glass of wine for herself right in front of them. Looks like Big Little Lies meets Hereditary. Intriguing! Also, terrifying!
In fact, in part of the trailer, Watts demands her boys shout: “YOU ARE MY MOTHER!” to her. Sounds just like a quote we’ve all heard before, thousands of times. “I am your mother…” You know the rest.
But Goodnight Mommy actually predates both of those, because the film is based on a 2014 Austrian cult thriller of the same name. In both, the bizarre mother behaves so strangely that the brothers begin to believe she isn’t really their mom. What’s really underneath that gauze helmet she won’t take off?
Using their best detective skills, the boys compare photos of her. Under the mask, she looks different than that beautiful Naomi Watts in pictures from the past. One of the boys even tries to remove her face mask while she bathes, but it’s no use—creepy mommy won’t let these youngsters get away with anything.
The original Goodnight Mommy—which is available to stream on Paramount+, or for free on Tubi, Roku Channel, and Vudu, for those too eager to wait a few weeks more—follows the same premise. Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz directed and wrote the flick, with Susanne Wuest in Naomi Watts’ role. Now, Brand New Cherry Flavor alum Matt Sobel directs the remake.
Goodnight Mommy will premiere on Prime Video on September 16.
