By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Darren Aronofsky’s new film “Mother!” is a bizarre and intimate haunted house horror-flick inspired by climate change.
Confused? That’s how Aronofsky—a writer/director known for his dreamy features like “Black Swan” and “Requiem for a Dream”—likes it.
In “Mother!” Jennifer Lawrence stars as an unnamed protagonist whose idyllic home is swept up by an unwelcomed cavalcade of mischievous house guests.
Led by an odious couple played by former Palisadian Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris, the guests arrive much to the chagrin of Lawrence, who continuously strives to keep her home a haven while attempting to not upset those who have already trampled on her peace of mind.
Together Pfeiffer and Harris incite a nightmarish inferno of demonic house play that drives a rift between Lawrence’s character and her poetic, yet disconsolate husband played by Javier Bardem.
With her cold, wicked performance, Pfeiffer is already being touted as a leading Best Supporting Actress contender for next year’s Oscar season, a best chance for the horror film to make it into a “top” category.
Although compared to psychological horror classics like “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Mother!” takes a surprising pivot away from the genre’s common themes of fear and redemption and uses its story arch to echo man’s chaotic destruction of our crumbling world.
With a plot still heavily kept in secret, “Mother!” arrives in select theaters on Sept. 15.
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