Is Goodnight Mommy Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6 out of 10. It's slow, quiet unease about two boys and a bandaged face, with a few rough scenes.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
High
The unease lingers for a day or two, mostly whenever you see a bandage.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Watch it in daylight with the blinds open, which is more than anyone in the house manages.
Goodnight Mommy runs one hundred minutes, and most of it takes place in a modern house by a lake. A mother comes home from cosmetic surgery with her face wrapped in bandages, and her ten-year-old twin sons do not like what they see.
The premise, briefly
After facial surgery, a mother returns to her isolated lakeside house with bandages over her face, and her twin sons start to suspect that she is someone else.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The woman really is their mother. Lukas died in an accident before the movie began, and Elias has been imagining him. Elias sets a curtain on fire while his mother is glued to the floor, and she burns to death. The last shot shows the three of them together in a cornfield.
The scene you're dreading
In the middle of the movie, the twins seal their captive's lips with super glue and then cut them open with scissors when they realize she cannot eat. It happens right after the Red Cross collectors leave.
The dog
No dog dies in Goodnight Mommy.
Goodnight Mommy is a slow, claustrophobic thriller about grief with a few cruel scenes, and the reveal near the end changes how everything before it looks.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Closed blinds in the middle of summer
After cosmetic facial surgery, a mother comes back to her modern house by a lake, where her twin sons Elias and Lukas, both ten, are waiting. Her head is wrapped in bandages, and only her eyes and mouth show. The boys are unsettled by how she looks and even more by how she acts. She talks only to Elias and ignores Lukas. It is the middle of summer, but she makes them keep the blinds shut during the day, enforces a rule of silence inside the house, and lets them play only outdoors. She is also cruel to Elias and hits him when he misbehaves, which the boys say their mother would never do.
The twins begin to think the woman under the bandages is not their mother. They find an old photograph of their mother with another woman who wears identical clothes and looks similar, and that convinces them she is an impostor. They tie her to the bed and hurt her to force a confession, taping her mouth so nobody hears her. Two Red Cross collectors come to the door, and they leave after Elias secretly takes a large amount of money from his mother's purse and gives it to them. The woman takes off the tape and shouts for help, but it is too late. The scene to brace for happens next, in the middle of the movie: the twins glue her lips together with super glue, then slice them apart with scissors once they realize she cannot eat.
The booby trap pays off
After she wets the bed, the twins untie her for a moment so she can use the restroom. She overpowers them and tries to escape, but the boys have already built a booby trap, and it knocks her out. She wakes up glued to the living room floor. Elias begins to set the house on fire to push her into telling the truth, but she keeps saying that she is their real mother.
The ending, explained
The woman tells Elias that Lukas died in an accident before the movie began and that Elias has been hallucinating him ever since. She cries as she tells him that the accident was not his fault and asks him to free her so that they can both move on. Elias asks what Lukas is doing, but she cannot see the vision of Lukas threatening to burn a curtain, so she cannot answer. Elias decides a real mother would see Lukas, and he lights the curtain. The fire kills her before any firefighters can get there. The last shot is a ghostly image of the mother reunited with her sons in a cornfield near their home.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed either way whether there is a scene during or after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Goodnight Mommy scary?
Yes, Goodnight Mommy is a 6 out of 10. It is slow, claustrophobic unease with a few cruel scenes, and the feeling lasts a day or two.
How does Goodnight Mommy end?
Elias sets a curtain alight while his mother is glued to the floor and she burns to death. It turns out Lukas died before the movie started and Elias has been imagining him. The final shot shows all three in a cornfield.
Does the dog die in Goodnight Mommy?
No dog dies in Goodnight Mommy.
Is there a post-credits scene in Goodnight Mommy?
Nobody has confirmed either way whether Goodnight Mommy has a scene during or after the credits.
Is the woman really the boys' mother in Goodnight Mommy?
Yes. In Goodnight Mommy the woman is their real mother. Lukas died in an accident before the movie began, and Elias has been hallucinating him, which is why she seems to ignore him.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Goodnight Mommy is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to spend a hundred minutes in a house with the blinds closed to find out what happens in Goodnight Mommy. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
