SIFF 2023: 'Mother Superior' Capsule Review

When a young orphan nurse takes a job caring for an ailing baroness at a remote estate, you know spookiness is about to happen. And filmmaker Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s Mother Superior doesn’t let us down.

[Related Reading: 'Irati' Movie Review]

Set in 1970s Austria, beset by the looming specter of World War II, this ever-shifting feminist throwback gothic chiller casts shades of Hammer Horror. We’ve got secrets, wings the protagonist can’t enter, unsettling noises, mysterious pasts and shadowy motives, haunted dreams full of sinister imagery, more going on than initially meets the eye. You know, all the hits wrapped up in a brisk pace, fantastic score, escalating tension, and witchy pagan craziness. Not bad for 71 minutes. [Grade: B+]

 

Find all of our SIFF 2023 coverage HERE.