Motherly

After many short films and episodes of series, the director and writer Craig David Wallace takes the step of making his first feature film and offers us a brilliant thriller in a confined space, a home invasion in which appearances are often deceptive.

Kate (Lora Burke) and her daughter Beth (Tessa Kozma) live alone on an isolated farm in the woods, but when Kate begins to suspect something sinister is going on, her maternal instincts are put to the test. Kate and Beth soon face a threatening couple who take them hostage and are desperate for Kate to confess to a past drama that connects them.

Having a low budget often means that directors are able to find other ways to give birth to their film. In this case, the director Craig David Wallace has placed the setting of his action mainly in the isolated house of Kate and Bate and above all has succeeded in mixing intelligently strong scenes of the past and the present which will show that the mistakes of the past often have important repercussions. We will appreciate the way the film has been edited by intelligently showing the same scene but from different angles.

The solid interpretation given by both the young Tessa Kozma and Lora Burke makes it easy for us to get into this film and never let go of our attention until the final denouement. We advise you to stay until the middle of the end credits to not miss any scene. The proposed ending is not only very successful but also leads us to think easily of the beginning of the movie Halloween (we will not say more).

Motherly
Directed by Craig David Wallace
Produced by Avi Federgreen, Laura Tremblay
Written by Ian Malone, Craig David Wallace  
Starring Lora Burke, Tessa Kozma, Kristen MacCulloch, Nick Smyth, Colin Paradine
Music by Spencer Creaghan 
Cinematography : Christoph Benfey
Edited by Joel Varickanickal 
Release date : August 26, 2021 (Frighfest), November 16, 2021 (United States)
Running time : 80 minutes

Seen on August 20, 2021 (Frighfest Screener press)

Mulder's Mark: