The Invisible Mother is a 2018 American horror film about a young female protagonist being tormented by psychedelic spirits.
Written and directed by Matthew Diebler and Jacob Gillman. Produced by Ned Christensen, Andie Donnelly, Zack Imbrogno and Dylan T. Sherman.
The Verboten Films production stars Fayelyn Bilodeau, Debra Wilson, Kiersten Warren, Richard Riehle, Brinke Stevens, Helen Slayton-Hughes and Ronnie Clark.
Plot:
Lesbian stoner Marcy and her grandparents are being tormented by the psychedelic spirits of an old photo album. Marcy returns to her grandparents’ home to find a hell of surreal ghosts and psychedelic visions, and Marcy must un-blur the lines of reality to save her family.
Having initially dismissed these visions as part of her grandmother’s dementia, Marcy quickly succumbs to horrors of her own, plagued by the warping reality and psycho-erotic ghosts seeping into her home.
However, when a deadly entity from a Victorian photograph steals her grandfather in the night, Marcy has no choice but to team up with her eccentric southern belle neighbour, her ice-cream-truck-driving weed dealer, her ailing grandmother, and an enigmatic phone psychic to confront the dark phantasm before everyone she knows is snatched to the deadly bosom of The Invisible Mother.
Reviews:
“Now keep in mind that my psychic abilities are intermediate”: Matthew Diebler and Jacob Gillman’s The Invisible Mother is a chintzy, Day-Glo haunted house movie, conjuring the spirit of John Waters to expose a hidden history of loss in American suburbia.” Anton Bitel
“It’s fear and dread—with a soupçon of Naschy’s taste for the humorous dark. It’s a psychedelic whirling dervish of primary colors; a realm rife with intricately detailed sets, practical in-camera effects, and stop-motion and reverse photography […] It’s a film that never shocks or startles. It’s a film where your eyes blaze wide-open at an endless series of unsettling “WTF” moments set to a pseudo-progressive jazz soundtrack…” B&S About Movies
“The Invisible Mother also goes into some terrifyingly strange places too, with one instance showing two people in rubber masks ‘interacting’ with a person dressed as a dog – yep seriously. It’s a strange dichotomy, where it can be genuinely creepy one moment and the next be really sad; a guess you could say it’s a metaphor for Alzheimer’s. A truly captivating and engrossing watch.” Bloody Flicks
“There’s a decent idea at the heart of this, but The Invisible Mother feels as if nobody knew how to flesh it out properly. Some good moments and one or two cast members who stand out (including Richard Riehle), but this ends up sadly disappointing.” Richard Matthews
“The Invisible Mother‘s overall tone is a bit like a carnival haunted house. Diebler & Gillman have all but completely disregarded jump scares and blood in favor of a more sustained unsettling feeling that effectively makes the scares almost a relief; now that something spooky is happening you’re no longer waiting anxiously for it! It’s extremely effective and left me with a huge grin.” Movie Jawn
“Well-made, creepy, and very low cheesiness all added up to a pretty great film […] I don’t want to give away too much but I thoroughly enjoyed The Invisible Mother. I was never bored during any of the 106 minutes and honestly, I was really impressed. The writers/directors made the most of what they what they had.” Nightmarish Conjurings
“It’s a strange, scary and pleasantly morbid little curiosity full of nightmarish imagery and full to the brim with oodles of charm. This also features some of the most original (and terrifying) visualisations of ghosts that I’ve ever seen onscreen […] Most importantly, though, it feels like a genuine love letter to ’60s and ’70s Euro-horror classics, whilst also being its own unique and captivating oddity.” Robyn Adams
“The plot begins very well, with several interesting ideas in the fray up to an incomprehensible ending […] A mixed cauldron of the improvised and the homemade, however, creates an interesting amalgam that sees the prism with which this first work must be analyzed precisely in the Italian horror of the past.” Universal Movies [translated from Italian]
Release:
Freestyle Digital Media is releasing The Invisible Mother On-Demand on October 12, 2021.
Director’s statement:
“Filming an independent movie is kind of traumatic, like childbirth in a taxi. Releasing a movie is like sending that child to college, only its professors are John Waters, David Lynch, an anthropomorphic Ouija board, and old tales from the Dark Side episodes. “Making The Invisible Mother has been an artistic labour of love that we’ve bled our hearts and souls into. We’re thrilled to finally be unleashing our twisted and beautiful baby into the world”
Cast and characters:
Fayelyn Bilodeau … Marcy
Debra Wilson … Glorianna
Kiersten Warren … Coco
Richard Riehle … Archie
Brinke Stevens … Fortune Teller
Helen Slayton-Hughes … Mona
Ronnie Clark … Bearded Ghost
Kale Clauson … Wyatt
Jeff Payton … Singing Man
Erica Jean Mungor … Simonne (as Erica Fortes)
Dixie … Taffy
Ned Christensen … Concerned Loner
Terri J. Freedman … Kathy the Psychic
Amara Gyulai … Invisible Mother
Laura Henry … Ghostly Hands
Loyana Vodicka … Shower Ghost
Ajax Stevens … Ghostly hands
Technical details:
106 minutes
Budget:
$100,000 (estimated)
Trailer:
