After their grandmother’s death, four estranged siblings return home to find their mother might be possessed in Mark O’Brien’s uneven Voices of Our Mother, now on Shudder.
The Voices of Our Mother, written and directed by Mark O’Brien, who previously wrote and directed the solid The Righteous, is a story of generational trauma and working with and hopefully through one’s rough past. After their grandmother dies and the mother has a stroke, four estranged adult siblings deal with her possible dementia and their memories. Not to mention the demon that may be the mother. To get through the funeral and deal with their mother, the siblings must face their pasts and each other, with the help of the youngest: a nun who may have the knowledge to deal with the demon inside.
Like many films in the last fifteen years or so, The Voices of Our Mother grafts a supernatural charge to heavy topics of grief, disease, and overall trauma. One can’t help but think of films such as The Babadook, Hereditary, and especially The Taking of Deborah Logan, which also works with the possibility of demonic dementia, taking “inner demons more literally.” Sad to say, those films worked better in serving both masters. The Voices of Our Mother works best as a chamber piece of four (five in including mom) people hashing it out. When shifting the footing, it becomes less sure, almost as if the supernatural layer is an addition to get more eyes and funding on the family drama at the core.
There’s a better movie almost there. One that takes a few more steps, that hones down the character a little more, perhaps a little tighter, a little less rambly. The film has one too many siblings, diluting the character work by pushing others to the side for long lengths, which also dissipates tension in favor of making a character point. The Voices of Our Mother rambles. It hints and teases more than paying, pausing after a moment that should have the momentum to drive the next point.
It’s a movie of the feelings of trauma and continued abuse embedded in the memory. Yes, it seems a demon is a part of the determination, but the actual non-supernatural history drives. What she did or didn’t do. What didn’t they do to help one another? The siblings have great chemistry; they feel real. Older brother William, played by O’Brien himself, is a controlling ass holding resistance at one of them may have murdered his wife (yeah, a bit extreme there); Alex Ozerov-Meyer is the stoner younger brother Martin, as the disillustioned older sister Carolina Bartczak gets lost in the mix, and Ponypool’s Georgina Reilly anchors as nun Annika, pretty much our lead. Mom is Sheila McCarthy, a noted character actress familiar to Shudder watchers as the lead in the astounding Anything for Jackson. They have their secrets, their memories, and even their jokes. They work as troubled siblings do, on the edge: joking a minute, then yelling and screaming about past wrongs the next.
After the tension of the bickering, as noted, done very well; very playlike with the cadence and build, eventually the horror breaks. When this comes to a head, Voices might deliver on the promises, but it is so quickly done that the afterthought idea hits. “How can I wrap this up? Oh, let me go back and make it a possession, then I can get fanciful.” Which could work if more structurally sound, or better shot. As it is, a sickly red occasionally gives a push, but mostly flat and meh in camerawork.
Ultimately, The Voices of Our Mother is a story of intergenerational trauma, and how we deal with or don’t. But in that way, it’s familiar, especially when adding an undercooked supernatural layer. It’s good, but not special, take on the subjects we’ve seen recently, even here on Shudder with Surrender.
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