Taxidermy Skills on Display in Artsy Psychological Horror Film ‘Eyes of My Mother’

Sandra Miska

The isolated existence of a murderous young woman is explored in the gothic horror film “The Eyes of My Mother.” The protagonist, Francesca, is introduced as a young girl (Olivia Bond) living with her much older parents (Diana Agostini and Paul Nazak) on an isolated farm somewhere in the USA. A trained surgeon from Portugal, Mother teaches her daughter all the important things a resourceful young lady must know, such as how to remove eyeballs from dead animals. “Loneliness can do strange things to the mind,” says the elder woman, thus stating what the film is really about. Mother and Francesca’s peaceful afternoon is disrupted the arrival of a seemingly harmless stranger, salesman Charlie (Will Brill). After Mother mistakenly lets the man in her brutally murders her, a traumatic event that forever changes her daughter’s life.

Francesca’s father, who also apparently has some sort of medical background, ties Charlie up in the barn and proceeds to remove his eyes and vocal chords, but not before the man explains to his captors his reason for being a murderer: It feels good. If all this wasn’t enough to mess up Francesca, she becomes the person who takes care of Charlie, treating him as a pet of sorts. In this environment, it’s no wonder that after her father dies by her hand, adult Francesca (Kika Magalhaes) goes ahead and preserves his body.

With her family gone, loneliness propels her to seek out others, most of whom she ends up murdering. Magalhaes had no trouble relating her character’s sense of isolation. “When I first became involved in this whole thing, I was going through a journey myself,” the actress explained to EV. “I’m from Portugal and I was having a hard time being an immigrant in the United States and so far away from my family. I was going through some kind of loss myself that made me kind of live in myself for a really long time, so I knew what that character was going through, I knew what being lonely was.”

With such strange parents Francesca probably never had a fighting chance at a normal life, but it was most likely her mother’s grisly death that sealed her fate. Magalhaes plays her as having an innocent, almost childlike quality to her, which makes it easy for her victims to fall prey to her. Eventually, she kidnaps a child, and becomes a dichotomous character as she becomes a loving and gentle mother while harboring a dark secret.

“I never saw her as being evil.” Magalhaes said of her character. “I know it might sound weird, and a lot of people might not see it and understand it, but I think Francesca’s a really loving person, and everything she did was out of love. She was so lonely she and she couldn’t bear being alone and she couldn’t bear people leaving here. So that’s why she did all of those things, and that’s why she keeps people in the barn.”

It’s safe to say Francesca’s unusual childhood accounts for her lack of social skills. Explained Magalhaes, “She was alone all of her life. She didn’t know what being around people was like. She didn’t know how to express love.”

One memorable scene involves Francesca going to a bar and taking home another young woman, Kimiko (Clara Wong). Magalhaes recalled being asked by a friend who viewed the film whether or not her character was a lesbian. “I don’t think she even knew what that word met,” was she reply. “She just wanted to feel affection by anyone who was in front of her, whether it was a man or a woman.”

“The Eyes of My Mother” is filled with increasingly disturbing scenes, but the viewer should not go into the theater expecting to see a “Saw” –like torture porn flick. It is essentially an art film, a minimalist movie shot in crisp black and white. It also has an open ending, the hallmark of all good art films. Writer/director Nicholas Pesce most likely found inspiration from the television series “Dexter” and other modern gothic films such as “Stoker” rather than the typical horror movies that go in and out of theaters these days.

“I think that there’s a lot of Hitchcock in it, and part of the reason the film is in black and white is it’s a tribute to classic horror movies,” said Magalhaes. “There’s a lot of [‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’]. …I think that there’s a lot of Lars Von Trier in there too, like the long shots, the pacing, the doors closing, somehow I saw that. In terms of character, ‘Audition’ and ‘Under the Skin’ were big time for me. I totally saw Francesca in those characters.”

The film leaves some lingering questions, such as how does Francesca, who is never seen going to a job, support herself and eventually a child? Magalhaes was gracious enough to explain this one to us. “She didn’t pay for anything. She fed herself with the bodies of her victims. That’s why there’s that scene where she’s putting stuff in the freezer. After killing Charlie and all of her victims she would carefully cut their bodies and put everything in the freezer so that stuff would last her for a really long time.”

Overall, Magalhaes, whom Rolling Stone Magazine named of the breakout stars of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, gives a powerful performance and makes her villainous character almost sympathetic. She and first-time director Pesce make an excellent pairing and both no doubt have promising careers ahead of them, hopefully working together. “I would love to work with him again,” said Magalhaes of Pesce. “I think he’s a genius. We had an amazing time shooting this thing and working on this thing. It was awesome.”

“The Eyes of My Mother” opens Dec. 2 in select theaters and on VOD.