Elias and Lukas are suspicious of the woman beneath the mask. They don’t know who she is, but if she isn’t their mother, who could she be? And do they have any idea what her plans might be for her children? ..
The movie is about a group of people who are trying to escape from a totalitarian government. It’s not your average movie, and that’s what makes it so interesting.
Why is the ‘mother’ wearing a mask?
The children are surprised to see their mother wearing a medical mask. She explains that she has had cosmetic surgery and is wearing the mask until her face heals.
As their mother is an acclaimed actress, it’s not surprising that she might want to retain her beauty. However, there are clues to suggest the woman isn’t their mother after all. As such, it could be that cosmetic surgery is just a convenient way to hide the potential imposter’s identity.
Why do the boys think their mother is an imposter?
The family moves into a new house and the mother sets some rules for her children. She tells them not to go in the barn, not to make noise, and not to enter her bedroom or office.
Their mother never makes rules like these, so Elias and Lukas are suspicious. ..
When the girls refuse to sing a bedtime lullaby that their mother used to sing to them, the boys become suspicious. They think that she is an imposter who doesn’t know the words, and they are not happy about it.
The masked woman also discards a picture Elias gives her of the family standing together. This is further evidence that she might not be who she claims to be as their mother used to keep their pictures. ..
Elias has always been worried about the colour of the woman’s eyes. They seem different to him and this worries him.
When they later go against the woman’s rules and investigate the barn, they notice blood on the wall. At this point, the woman enters the barn and starts to act aggressively toward them. Again, this behaviour is quite unlike that of their mother.
The boys run away and find shelter in a neighbour’s barn. But when the owner alerts the police, the boys are taken back to their mother’s home. They tell the police the woman living there is an imposter but when the police see her, she is without her mask and looks exactly like the boys’ mother.
Elias listens in on the conversation between the woman and the police, and he is horrified by what he hears. The woman says that she heard the man say that he had slipped on some water, and it seems like reality has disappeared completely. Elias is left feeling terrified, and he can’t help but wonder if this is something that happens to people all the time.
Later in the movie, we find out what these words mean. ..
Is the woman the boys’ mother?
The boys are still unconvinced about the woman’s claims to be their mother and they think she is a stranger that has had facial reconstructive surgery to look like her. They are also unconvinced about her story that she was raped by their father.
When she is asleep, they duct-tape her to her bed. When she wakes up, Elias douses her with cold water and demands to know where their real mother is. She tells them that she is their mother and when asked about the change in her eye color, she tells them that she sometimes wears colored contact lenses. ..
The police are called to check on the boys and they ask where their mother is. Elias tells them she has gone out somewhere and one of the police is a little unbelieving of this story but when they are called to another job, they leave the boys at home.
Elias and Lukas run away. But before they get far, Elias tells Lukas he has forgotten his toothbrush. When he returns to the house, he finds his mother’s coloured contact lenses.
Elias’s mother had been lying to him all along. She wasn’t an imposter, but there was someone else in Elias’s life who wasn’t who they claimed to be. The clue to this was in the barn where Elias’s mother took him to make him face up to the truth. ..
What does Elias find in the barn?
Elias sees the blood-stained wall in the barn and it’s here that he and I notice a bullet hole.
Elias’ mother tells us that when he and Lukas were younger, they played with a loaded gun. This resulted in a tragic accident when Elias shot Lukas by mistake.
When the mother tries to make Elias face up to this reality, he lashes out at her. She falls from the barn attic and hits the ground below. The lantern she was carrying breaks and it causes the hay to burst into flames.
Elias ran from the barn when he saw his mother and Lukas coming toward him. He didn’t understand what had happened, but he saw his mother and Lukas embrace and his mother told him that he had done nothing wrong.
Are Elias’ mother and brother alive?
Elias is having trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy, something his mother talked about earlier in her conversation with the police.
In the end of the movie, Elias sees a group of people who he believes are his family. He is not sure if they are real or hallucinations, but he is certain that they are his family. This points to the fact that the Lukas we see throughout the movie was also a figment of Elias’ imagination. If you rewatch the movie, you will notice that the mother only talks to Elias and not Lukas, which is a sign that Lukas was never really there. You will also notice that Lukas sometimes appears as Elias’ reflection rather than a living, breathing human being.
Elias’s delusion is a result of the guilt and grief he felt after his brother died. As a way of dealing with the trauma that happened and the loneliness that he felt, he built a world where his brother still existed.
The mother’s behaviour in the movie is a result of her own grief and anger towards Elias for accidentally killing his brother. She probably threw away the picture that Elias drew for her because she didn’t want to be reminded of her now-broken family.
The new movie is a horror movie, but it is also a study of grief and how it can affect us. The original 2014 movie had the same themes, but be warned, if you watch the Austrian original, you will discover a move that is far more grim and violent than this one!
In 2022, a new movie about a mother and her young son is set to release. The film is set in the future and follows the boy as he deals with the challenges of life in a world that has changed so much since his mother was alive.
