In horror movies, where social comforts are upended for maximum disturbance, this idealism curdles into (often literal) demonization. So go three popular sexist tropes, with mothers - stereotypically sexless figures - usually falling into martyrdom or sainthood. A martyr, a saint and - at least in the children’s eyes - a harlot. Although one woman gets the most screen time, “The Lodge” is really about three mother figures: the children’s dead mom, the Virgin Mary (via a foreboding portrait in the dining room) and Grace. The results are gut-wrenching, as an addled Grace turns on her juvenile charges. But Mia and Aiden, determined not to let this woman replace their mother, set out to exploit Grace’s trauma when the three are forced together for Christmas in their family vacation home. Young and awkward, Grace does her best to win over her fiancé’s children. But as the films’ many terrors unfold, it seems they were right to be reluctant. In both films, the central mother figures are unprepared for their new roles - what’s more, in a disturbing blow to the patriarchal nuclear family, these women are ambivalent about motherhood itself. “The Lodge” (now in theaters), from the “Goodnight Mommy” directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, and “Swallow” (March 6), from Carlo Mirabella-Davis, present more complex takes on spurned motherhood. The anti-mothering in movies like “Psycho,” “Carrie,” “Antichrist” and “Hereditary” is so blatant it borders on sacrilege - no accident, as each of these movies deals in zealotry as well as maternal abuse. Whether harming their children or raising monsters of their own, these women eschew maternal expectation so thoroughly as to harm humanity. Poisoning, verbal abuse, neglect, decapitation by piano wire: These are just a few of the sins committed by mothers in horror movies.
This article contains spoilers for “The Lodge.”
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