One of those movies where what you see on screen is exactly what’s happening is You Are Not My Mother. Everything is laid out in front of you on a platter, so you don’t have to strain your brain trying to figure out the symbols and meanings that are already there. This is what makes the movie entertaining. You Are Not My Mother is true to its essence thanks to the theme, the ominous setting, and the background music. Additionally, it is able to express its aims while withholding the details that add to the intrigue of the broader plot.
You Are Not My Mother Plot Summary
Charlotte, also known as Char (Hazel Doupe), has a difficult teenage childhood that is made worse by the condition of her mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken). Char hastily snatches the wheel and avoids hitting a horse one day as Angela is en route to send Char off at school (as well as theirs, probably). She then exits the vehicle and strolls toward the school. After being bullied by her classmates on the way home from her all-girls school, she finds their abandoned automobile outside with the driver’s door wide open. Police advise waiting as they are unable to determine where Angela has gone.
Rita, Angela’s mother, and Aaron, her uncle, are inconsolable. But this won’t change until Angela comes back one evening. She has changed, and Char’s grandmother believes that the transformation is evil. While Angela expresses her love and affection for Char once more, there is a strange unease surrounding them. There appear to be ancient forces at work, and based on what we can see and what Char’s grandmother said, they don’t want to be friends.
Warning: Major Spoilers
Like Mother Like Daughter
Rita explains how difficult a time it was for young Angela when Char was born when she tells Char about her mother. Even if this is all that is known about Angela’s childhood, it does convey the idea that caring for Char when she was a baby was difficult for Angela and had an impact on her mental health. And the phrase “young” does appear to refer to her teenage years, when she was roughly Char’s age at the time.
Char also experiences her fair share of problems and difficulties, such as the sexually explicit bullying she endures at school. And for what seems like an eternity, she has had to put up with her mother’s odd conduct. Now, this may be the result of either of two things: either she was exposed to her mother’s uncontrollable wrath as a result of everything she through while she was a young mother carrying her child, or (Char). Alternately, she may have been duped by the same fairies that she once left Char with by the river in return for a changeling. In any case, both the mother and the daughter have experienced difficult adolescence.
The Changeling
We discover that in legend, rivers, lakes, and caves are thought to be the passageways that connect our world to the other world, and that from there, fairies might join our world or even lead humans to their realm as Char goes on a tour to what appears to be some type of museum. It’s interesting to note that when Char was a young child, her mother, Angela, abandoned her and it appeared that she had forgotten where she had been. Char was later found beside a river. In reality, Char’s grandmother also talks about how, once she was brought back, they found that the infant wasn’t actually her but a changeling, a child who had been replaced by fairies for a human child during infancy. To return Char back to her changeling self, which is maybe the only method to get rid of a changeling, her grandmother had to take her to a fire.
It appears that even when Char’s grandmother returned her to her human form, the fairies managed to keep hold of Angela’s consciousness. Since the episode by the river, she has likely been in and out of a lost state of mind, and all of these things are what the fairies are trying to get their hands on Char. Irish folklore claims that fairies would either give a human kid to the devil or utilise it to increase their population. However, now that she is almost an adult, we do not understand why the fairies are still pursuing her. However, there is no logical basis for such supernatural operations.
Families Are The Scariest Thing On The Planet
You Are Not My Mother appears to be a supernatural interpretation of what happens when parents fail to properly raise their children, which occasionally takes the form of domestic horror. When a child’s dysfunctional parents, like Angela in this case, prevent them from allowing him or her to thrive in their own place in society by transforming them into a different person who is shunned by others and instructed not to interact with, they can occasionally take on the terrifying qualities of fairies (like fairies and other beings from the native folklore).
Char’s current personality is a result of how Angela has likely been throughout the majority of her existence. Most of the time, she keeps to herself and doesn’t interact with anyone until absolutely necessary. She does, however, find comfort in her former bully-turned-friend Suzanne, however this comfort only lasts a little while because Suzanne is terrified away by Angela, who has by this time virtually transformed into a fairy, though not the kind we have all come to expect. The fact that the movie portrays two of its three main characters as evil due to their lack of maternal instincts adds another layer of terror to the story. So we already have the impression that the family is unsettling before the fairies are revealed.
Folklore And Mental Health
Although it is understandable that the movie seeks to give certain folkloric components a mental health perspective, it falls short in this endeavour. Both of these elements are toned down to emphasise the horror component. This, however, does make sense given that a horror movie does need real-life scary aspects. It is absolutely glaringly obvious how the movie has used Angela’s mental state to highlight her possessed conduct and Char’s blatant disregard for her mother’s transformed, terrible self. Additionally, it is a cunning move that both of their actions have roots in Irish tradition.
You Are Not My Mother Ending Explained: Is Charlotte Safe?
At the movie’s conclusion, Charlotte successfully convinces her mother, who had almost turned into a fairy, to return to her human form by bringing her to a fire. The following morning, she is joined by her real mother thanks to this ceremony. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether Charlotte is secure. She is shown giving her mother the same herb ball that her grandmother used, perhaps to fend off ghosts and other mystical beings. Although it is claimed that doing this will keep Angela safe, doesn’t it leave Char open to another paranormal encounter by the river?
Things are left ignored in an uncomfortable and irritating way by You Are Not My Mother. It will keep you safe, Char tells her mother in her swan song. This sounds like a very clear warning, especially considering how quickly the movie finishes directly after the word “safe.” It does cause us to consider Charlotte and whether the purge truly healed her. This may be the movie’s approach of demonstrating that fear still exists even when supernatural factors aren’t involved in the form of mental processes.
Kate Dolan is the director of the 2022 Irish horror movie You Are Not My Mother.
