Movie Review--Matriarch

"I... had a feeling that you were in pain somehow.  Are you?"

--Celia, Matriarch

"Queen of rot and rebirth, take your daughter."

--Celia, Matriarch

Family strife, death, and slow burn supernatural drama are the focus of Matriarch, another well-executed Hulu exclusive 2022 horror film alongside Prey and Hellraiser.  In contrast with her roles in The VVitch and Prometheus, Katie Dickie plays a total villain here who merges the cruelty of an emotionally abusive parent with elements of a pseudo-pagan leader, though saying this does not give away almost anything about the true nature of the plot.  Jemima Rooper is not the most mainstream actress in American cinema and streaming, but she is great as a protagonist with plenty of inner conflict and feistiness.  Together, these actresses build the narrative backbone for a story that is about both parents and children and, in a very, very general sense, theism and paganism.

Production Values

A handful of recurring kinds of imagery, some masterful shots, and fantastic acting are the heart of the production quality in Matriarch.  With its imagery, the film slowly hints at and presents things that make parts of the ending clearer as it nears, though a great deal is still left uncertain by the final frame.  The way that water and darkness are used is especially central.  As the slow burn continues, there are moments of silent acting and passionate dialogue on the part of the main characters while the visual identity establishes itself.  Laura, played by Jemima Rooper, absolutely kills it as a woman so torn apart that even she seems to be confused about many of her own beliefs and motives, which are challenged as the film progresses.  As a sometimes apathetic, existentially aimless person crippled by her family background, Rooper is wonderful.  Matching her talent is Katie Dickie's sinister mother figure.  Playing an outright antagonist instead of her more culturally visible roles, she has to oscillate between bouts of aggressive domineering, quieter manipulation, and a more welcoming facade.  Katie Dickie shines in every scene she is in.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

A man walks naked into a swamp, leaving a letter behind with his clothes.  He is soon pulled under the water.  Laura is introduced later on as she passes her free time abusing alcohol and drugs to the point of almost dying from an overdose, but a stream of dark liquid appears and travels into her open mouth as she is on the floor.  Suffering from serious emotional wounds due to what is implied to be a horrific childhood, she quits her job out of distress and soon revisits her estranged mother.  Once Laura arrives, her mom tries repeatedly to get her to drink water she provides, and evidence comes to light that she has the town as a whole in her manipulative grip.

Intellectual Content

Matriarch is masterful at showing how someone might have or want a child so that they can have someone be dependent on them and in turn make them feel validated as a person.  Celia says she just wanted adoration, and yet she does not deserve it, instead looking to egoism and a pagan power she can misrepresent to her neighbors to control them.  Even after Laura leaves her, Celia uses her influence to set herself up as an almost messianic presence, to have sex with practically all the men of the town (and her fault is the promiscuity, not in being promiscuous while happening to be a woman), and to eventually set Laura up to be sacrificed upon her return; not once is she truly hinted at being anything more than, as Laura would say, an abusive "bitch" of a mother.  A person has to be a fool to let their upbringing and its aftermath deter them from alignment with reason, so there is still no excuse for Laura's hedonistic, irrationalistic philosophy and lifestyle when we first see her, but the damage parents can do to their children only with words is not shied away from.

Celia's darkness runs even deeper than this, though, as she was involved in how the people of the area turned, sometimes unknowingly, to a pagan entity away from the Christian Yahweh because she offered healing and restoration of the body, but at the cost of decay that can only be held at bay by repeatedly drinking her "milk."  This entity's healing power that Celia treats as her own is what attracts the character Abi away from the implied Christianity of her father, who assumes that the sudden disappearance of her cancer is the work of God and not of a pagan being.  Silent as God might be, not that direct speech from God could actually be known with absolute certainty to be from God (and not that even talking to a person right in front of you proves that they are there), the nature spirit gives only to take away painfully, with every one of the townspeople coming to seemingly regret their new philosophical practice implemented by Celia.

Conclusion

Ambiguity and revelation are present at the end of Matriarch, which evolves into somewhat of a Lovecraftian tale, albeit a pagan version of one.  More than its progressively intensifying horror tone, it offers a stellar onscreen portrayal of a dysfunctional family that does not even slightly shy away from how much emotional devastation just one selfish parent can cause--even if he or she is never physically abusive.  This oppressive family relationship yields to more and more desperation on the part of many characters until the finale very naturally springs out of the seeds down in earlier scenes.  2022 was a good year for Hulu's high profile streaming-distributed horror films.  Matriarch stands very nicely alongside Prey and Hellraiser even though it is not quite at the same level of intensity in some ways.

Content:

 1.  Violence:  The most graphic scene is one where a woman repeatedly pummels someone's head with a shotgun until it splits apart.

 2.  Profanity:  "Fuck," "shit," and "bitch" are used.

 3.  Nudity:  In the first scene, a naked man is seen in shadows from behind, but his penis is seen briefly between his legs on the other side.  Female breasts are directly shown later on more than once.

 4.  Sexuality:  More than once, two women kiss with the possibility of having sex afterward.  After a special "service," a group of people begin breaking off into pairs to openly have sex in the room.