If you’re looking for a few scares this weekend, an exclusive one-day only screening at Scotiabank Theatre in Halifax is ready to satisfy your darkest craving.
The Voices of Our Mother will be making its premiere locally Saturday night at the Cineplex theatre on Chain Lake Drive ahead of a future release yet to be scheduled.
Directed by Newfoundland-born actor and filmmaker Mark O’Brien, the intense thriller follows four estranged siblings who return to their childhood home to care for their mysteriously ill mother when strange things start to take over.
Soon the family begins to realize the matriarch’s health issues may be tied to the supernatural and they start to find themselves face-to-face with a cryptic evil that appears to turn them against each other and seek their demise.
“I think there’s so much in a family that goes unsaid yet at the same time you’re so overt,” says O’Brien about why family dynamics make such a great backdrop for horror movies.
“It is a strange dichotomy that every family has that you can feel comfortable around your family and say the things you want to say (because) these are people you’ve known your whole life yet there are things you don’t really talk about and I think that’s really ripe ground for a genre story.”
The sophomore feature film from the veteran actor who may be best known to Maritime audiences for co-starring in the long-running TV series Republic of Doyle, O’Brien previously earned several Canadian Screen Award nominations for his directorial debut horror hit, The Righteous.
In that 2021 award-winning thriller, a burdened man must cope with the wrath of a vengeful God after he and his wife are visited by a mysterious stranger.
“Both of these films are quite bold and they say a lot of different things,” says O’Brien, adding that, in his career, he has discovered not to take shortcuts when telling stories. “I learned that that’s the best way to go. You’ve got to trust your gut and your instincts and why you got in this business in the first place.”
O’Brien encourages people to come out and experience The Voices of Our Mother at the Scotiabank Theatre on Saturday at 7 p.m., adding that the best way to experience the thriller is on the big screen.
“It has core elements but it is also really thought-provoking in a number of ways and it’s quite complex in its characters and the characters’ relationships” says O’Brien, who will be in attendance and taking questions at the end of the movie. “At the same time, when you watch the movie in a theatre, it’s really in your face; it hits really hard (and) it grabs you and kind of won’t let go.”
For tickets or more information, visit the Scotiabank Theatre website.
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