Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Mark O'Brien
Starring: Mark O'Brien, Georgina Reilly, Carolina Bartczak, Alex Ozerov-Meyer, Sheila McCarthy
Horror movies centred on demonic possession and exorcisms generally feature a possessed young woman and a male religious figure battling a crisis of faith as they attempt to save the possessed victim. The Voices of Our Mother, actor Mark O'Brien's second feature as writer/director, strays from convention in this regard. Here the possession victim is an elderly woman, while her potential saviour is a young nun.
When her mother passes away, Harriet (Sheila McCarthy) suffers what appears to be a stroke and is hospitalised. Her estranged adult children are summoned to her side. William (O'Brien) is a gambling addict who badly needs his inheritance to pay off his debts. His twin sister Therese (Carolina Bartczak) is struggling with the death of her wife. Their younger brother Martin (Alex Ozerov-Meyer) is a hollowed-out coke fiend. The baby of the bunch is Annika (Georgina Reilly), the aforementioned nun.
Harriet's doctors are baffled by tests that show she has a level of health usually associated with a young child rather than a woman in her sixties. When she awakens she is brought home by her children, and in their childhood home the ghosts of the past begin rattling chains. None of Harriet's kids have forgiven her for allowing their father's abuse to go unchecked. It was their grandmother Johanna (Anna Ferguson) who looked out for them, but what they don't realise is that Johanna was also keeping something supernatural at bay through the power of her faith. With Johanna now gone the door has been flung open and a demonic entity has attached itself to Harriet.
O'Brien's film is as much a family drama as a horror movie. Truth be told, it's probably more successful as the former than the latter. Privy to their secrets, the demon uses Harriet as a vessel to tear these siblings apart, with Harriet whispering gossip to each of their kids and turning them against each other. As with O'Brien's 2021 debut The Righteous, which tapped a similar vein of religious horror, The Voices of Our Mother is a dialogue heavy affair that often resembles a filmed play. This would seem to be the director's strong point, as the scenes of the bickering siblings verbally lashing out at one another carry more weight than the supernatural sequences.
But The Righteous was also a handsomely mounted production, almost Bergman-esque in its use of black and white. O'Brien's follow-up is visually dreary. With all the colour drained out, we're left with a series of flat compositions that give it the aesthetic of a '90s TV show. There are some nice effects to demonstrate Harriet's possession, with the actress's face distorting in a way that doesn't appear to be digitally enhanced, but little else of visual interest.
The idea of a matriarch succumbing to possession has a lot of potential that the film squanders. It would surely be a more effective premise if any of Harriet's kids actually cared about her, rather than waiting for her to die so they can get their grubby mitts on their inheritance. Having a nun as the exorcist is a refreshing change-up, but it's simply a case of gender-swapping a character, with Annika characterised by the same crisis of faith we've seen dozens of times from male predecessors. This exorcism drama won't compel you.
The Voices of Our Mother is on Shudder from June 19th.
