You Are Not My Mother is one of those movies where what you see is what’s happening. Everything is laid out in front of you on a plate, so you don’t have to strain your brain trying to figure out the symbols and meanings that are already there. This is what makes the movie entertaining. “You Are Not My Mother” is true to its subject matter, thanks to the aura of sadness and the background score. Additionally, it is able to express its intentions while hiding the details that add to the mystery of the overall plot.
This Irish film tells the adventurous tale of a little girl who wishes to learn her family’s dark secrets. The story follows Charlotte (Hazel Doupe), a teenage schoolgirl, as she searches for answers to the terrifying secrets her family is hiding. Although the movie’s ending leaves many viewers scratching their heads as to what happened, there are bits of information scattered throughout the plot.
You Are Not My Mother Explained
In the opening scene of the movie, a stranger takes a young child to a circle formed of twigs and then lights it on fire. Off-screen, the baby’s cries may be heard. Years later, Charlotte, also known as Char, has difficult teenage life that is made worse by the physical and mental health of her mother, Angela. One day, when Angela is driving Char to send her off at school, Char hastily grabs the wheel to avoid hitting a horse and saves it. She then exits the vehicle and walks toward the school.
After being bullied by her classmates on the way home from her all-girls school, Char finds their abandoned car outside with the driver’s door wide open. Police advise waiting as they are unable to identify where Angela has gone. Char and her uncle Aaron look for their mother, where her classmates have burned a picture of her. She dreams about Angela being chained to the bed, having her eyes sewed shut, and having blood on her teeth after her unsuccessful search for her mother.
Char wakes up from a terrifying dream to discover Angela had returned home in the early morning. She has changed, and in the opinion of Char’s grandmother, the change is evil. While Angela expresses her love and affection for Char once more, there is a strange uneasiness surrounding them. According to appearances and Char’s grandmother’s statements, ancient forces are at work, and they are not there to make friends.
Angela Tries To Kill Aaron
The following day, Angela goes for a walk after crushing two tablets and putting them in Aaron’s tea. When Char’s classmates attempt to burn her face, she saves her as well. Char and Angela walk side by side. Angela refuses to answer Char’s questions regarding what happened to her after she vanished. Char pursues Angela after she steps into a river. She feels someone grab her leg from inside the river, and she recognizes a woman’s face. Char runs back in fear.
When Char and Angela get home, they find Aaron on the floor, trembling and with foam coming out of his mouth. Aaron is sent to the hospital when her grandmother calls for an ambulance. To Char’s disgust, Angela turns on the record player and begins tripping around. She sprains her ankle and screams in a rage. Char rushes to her bedroom. Rita learns that Aaron overdosed on lithium, a medication that had previously been prescribed to Angela. She tries to ignite a twig ball she had made while resting in the hospital.
Difficult Childhood
When Rita informs Char about her mother, she discusses how hard a time it was for young Angela once Char was born. Even though this is the only information we have about Angela’s past, it does convey the idea that caring for Char when she was a baby was difficult for Angela and had an impact on her mental health. And the term “young” does appear to refer to her teenage years when she was roughly the same age as Char is now.
Char also experiences her fair share of problems and difficulties, such as the sexually graphic bullying she suffers at school. She’s also had to put up with her mother’s creepy behavior for what seems like a lifetime. Now, this may have happened for one of two reasons: either she was exposed to her mother’s unrestrained anger as a result of everything she endured while she was a young mother carrying her child. Another possibility is that she was tricked by the same fairies that she had left Char with by the river in return for a changeling. In any case, both the mother and the daughter have experienced a difficult childhood.
The Changeling
As Char goes on a tour to what appears to be some type of museum, We discover that in legend, rivers, lakes, and caves are thought to be the gateways that connect our world to another world and that from there, fairies might join our world or perhaps even lead humans to their realm. Interestingly, Char’s mother, Angela, left her when she was a newborn and it appears that she has no memory of where she had been. Char was also found beside a river.
In fact, Char’s grandmother also talks about how, once she was brought back, they found that the baby wasn’t actually her but a changeling, a child who had been replaced by fairies for a human child during birth. To return Char back to her changeling self, which is possibly the only method to get rid of a changeling, her grandmother had to take her to a fire.
Now it seems that the fairies still have a hold over Angela’s mind even after Char was returned to her human form by her grandmother. Since the incident at the river, she has likely been in and out of a lost state of mind, and all of these things are the fairies’ work to take back control of Char. Irish folklore claims that fairies would either give a human baby to the devil or use it to increase their population. However, now that she is almost an adult, we do not understand why the fairies are still seeking her. However, the supernatural doesn’t operate in such a logical manner.
Bad Parenting
“You Are Not My Mother” appears to be a supernatural interpretation of what happens when parents fail to properly raise their children, which occasionally takes the form of domestic horror. When a child’s dysfunctional parents, like Angela in this case, prevent them from allowing him or her to succeed in their own place in society by transforming them into a different person who is shunned by others and ordered not to interact with others, they can occasionally take on the terrifying qualities of fairies.
Char became what she is today as a result of how Angela has likely been for her entire life. Most of the time, she keeps to herself and doesn’t interact with anyone until absolutely necessary. She does, however, find comfort in her former bully-turned-friend, Suzanne. However, this comfort only lasts a little while because Suzanne is scared away by Angela, who has by this point almost transformed into a fairy, though not the kind we have all come to expect. The fact that the movie portrays two of its three main characters as “evil” because they lack maternal instincts adds another layer of terror to the story.
Folklore
Even if we can see that the movie is trying to give certain folkloric aspects a mental health angle, it doesn’t completely succeed in its objective. Both of these elements are toned down to emphasize the horror component. This, however, does make sense given that a horror movie does need real-life scary aspects. It is absolutely obvious how the movie used Angela’s mental state to highlight her possessed behavior as well as Char’s blatant disregard for her mother’s transformed, terrible self. Additionally, it is a smart move that both of their actions have roots in Irish tradition.
You Are Not My Mother Ending
At the movie’s conclusion, Charlotte successfully convinces her mother, who had almost turned into a fairy, to return to her human form by bringing her to a fire. The following morning, she is joined by her real mother thanks to this ceremony. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether Charlotte is safe. She is shown giving her mother the same herb ball that her grandmother used, perhaps to fend off spirits and other mystical beings. While it is said that doing this will keep Angela safe, doesn’t it leave Char open to another paranormal encounter “by the river”?
Things are left ignored in an uncomfortable and irritating way in You Are Not My Mother. The final thing Char says to her mother is, “It will keep you safe.” This sounds like a very strong warning, especially given that the movie ends suddenly with the word “safe” in the final scene. It does force us to question Charlotte and whether the purge truly healed her. Maybe this is how the movie demonstrates that even when supernatural aspects aren’t present, horror still exists in the form of mental processes.
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