Director: Marie Alice Wolfszahn
Year: 2022
Country: Austria
Alternate Titles: Mater Superior
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Recapping her experiences to a police investigation, a woman retells of her recent job as a nurse for a strict woman as a means of exploring the truth about her birth mother that she’s never known, but the longer she stays there she comes to learn of the true reason for the visit to the house.
Review:
This was a pretty decent if somewhat problematic effort. When this one scores the best is due to the highly impressive and enjoyable Gothic genre tropes that are employed here due to the fantastic setting that enhances an overall engrossing mystery. With the rustic, rural manner taking centerstage here and a fantastic setpiece showing for the occult manners that take place here, it serves this one well enough to introduce the fantastic mystery at the heart of the film with this one mainly focusing on her search for her mother that ties itself into the shared backstory they have. It leads to a smattering of fantastic and gruesome imagery here through the ritualistic practices employed here once the mystery comes to a head as this one becomes more focused on switching over to the witchcraft angle at the heart of the film in the back half of the running time.
However, that factor also exposes the one main drawback here as the film tends to pull off the mysticism and witchcraft angles out of the blue in order to justify the genre tag it ends up generating. The first half doesn’t even offer anything in the way of genuine thrills or excitement for what it does, even with the interrupting flashbacks to the police interrogation that’s running everything together, as the film instead focuses on the nursing duties for her cover and getting to know the main cast around her. This setup, in addition to the overall brevity of the piece barely running over an hour, causes the majority of the occult leanings to feel shoehorned into the point of barely registering their purpose or impact on everything, especially with the rushed and confused end that doesn’t really explain anything which holds this back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally enjoyable if slightly problematic effort, this one manages to remain enjoyable due to the positives on display here which manage to keep the few flaws here to a negative. Those who appreciate this kind of approach in their feature will have a lot to like here while most others should heed caution.
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