[FrightFest Glasgow '25] FILM REVIEW: A Mother's Embrace
- Adam
- Mar 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 18
A Mother's Embrace - FrightFest Glasgow UK Premiere Review
Director: Christian Ponce
Starring: Marjorie Estiano, Javier Drolas, Rafael Canedo, Thelmo Fernandes
Written by: Gabriela Capello, André Pereira, Christian Ponce
Produced by: André Pereira, Mariana Muniz
Cinematography by: Franco Cerana, Leandro Pagliaro
Original Score by: Bernardo Uzeda
Synopsis:
Firefighter Ana and her team must evacuate a collapsing nursing home during a huge storm, but the mysterious residents have other sinister plans.
Thoughts:
The thing I love most about foreign language horror is how local folklore often plays into the plot. Most cultures have their own version of the bogeyman and its always interesting to see how a filmmaker puts their own spin on that tale; but for every 'La Llorona' we get, for example, we also can get stinkers like 'The Curse of La Llorona'. So is 'A Mothers Embrace' Brazils next horror film or just the same old story we’ve seen before with a new lick of paint?
From the start of the film, I was a touch worried about what I’d gotten myself into. The movie opens with a sort of dream sequence/flashback of the main character and her mother entering a carnival. I can’t 100% confirm that the movie uses an AI image of a giant clown statue and its very off putting. Once we get past that, the story does start to draw you in, giving me the same sort of vibes I had watching 'REC' (2007) for the first time. The film does a good job at establishing each character of the crew and making them distinct enough that once they get split up, its easy to tell who’s who and they aren’t just faceless victims.
Majorie Estiano and Val Perre as Ana and Dias respectfully are absolutely a highlight of the film. They are often at odds with each other, due to having an older/young boss/rookie relationship and it really carries a lot of the drama in the film.
The horror of 'A Mother's Embrace' really took me by surprise with how effective it was. There’s a lot of horror elements going on here, with creepy cult members and slimy tentacle monsters, but its often the simple scares, like someone just standing in a door way that scared me the most. Most of the film takes place in an elderly care home that’s slowly falling apart due to the constant flooding in the area.
The ticking clock of the building collapsing and the mystery of what these weird old people are up to really kept me hooked throughout. I would say that the cinematography is outstanding, but it also doesn’t need to be flashy to tell this story. A lot of the scares land and keep you intrigued, but unfortunately, the story isn’t really anything original.
Like I’ve said, I was getting a lot of 'REC' from the movie, along with elements of video games 'Resident Evil 7' and 'Outlast'. At times, it feels like they had several ideas for a horror movie and shoved it all into the one story, when they might have been best just focusing on the one thing. It’s a supernatural, cult based monster movie that is simultaneously a drama about a woman dealing with grief while a flood is happening. While a lot of the horror and drama moments do work, you feel exhausted by the end with all of the story lines trying to tie back into each other.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Adam Neeson
'A Mother's Embrace' received its UK Premiere at FrightFest Glasgow on March 8th
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