Premise: After her mother is brutally murdered by a stranger, a young girl and her father take the murderer prisoner in their barn for years.
I've noticed there's a cousin to this "elevated horror" trend that I'm a big fan of. The best way I can describe them is "vibes horror". These are movies like The Eyes of My Mother and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House. They don't hit story beats in expected ways. They aren't out for jump scares. Their main goal is to sort of unsettle you and make you uncomfortable. It's not a huge surprise to me that I like this kind of horror. These movies aren't that far removed from A Ghost Story, which immediately jumped high on my favorite movie list and is also more vibes than plot (although not horror).
It's also not a coincidence that The Eyes of My Mother plays more like a collection of short stories or an anthology about the same character. It jumps to different times in Francisca's (Kika Magalhaes) life: the moments that define her. I had a lot of fun just seeing where the movie was going. It starts with Francisca's mother's brutal murder and the odd decision of what to do with the murderer. Francisca seems less evil than profoundly fucked up.
I imagine this is a movie that some people are profoundly turned off by. The pacing is strange and it's not clear what the point of it all is. And that's not me suggesting that I do hold the secret of what the point is. I have no clue. For whatever reason I dig it though. And it will be fun to unpack why. It just might take some time.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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