The Hell House LLC franchise has many horror fans in a chokehold. This is why we all leaned in when we saw that 825 Forest Road would be writer-director Stephen Cognetti’s first feature outside of the popular franchise. The second the screener landed in my inbox, I turned my lights off, hit play, and hoped for the best. 

A New Chapter Beyond Hell House LLC

825 Forest Road opens with a proper creepy introduction to set the tone. It wastes no time giving us the atmosphere and spine tingles as we watch supernatural things pop off. It then shifts focus to Chuck, who is moving his wife and sister to Ashland Falls. On top of the trio’s dynamic being tense and off, they are recovering from Chuck and Isabelle’s mother’s recent death. To make matters worse, this life event leads Maria to discover she has a sister-in-law. So, there are already many moving pieces before this family begins to uncover this town’s sinister secrets.

Chuck (Joe Falcone) is the first member of this uneasy family to become aware something is not right. He also finds others who catch him up on the town’s history and the story behind the ghostly woman who haunts it. Isabelle (Kathryn Miller) is carrying grief and guilt over her mother’s death while being a teen who is upset that her brother abandoned her years ago. She feels unwanted, and because she is missing pieces of the ghost story, she seems like an easy target for the entity’s manipulation. Maria (Elizabeth Vermilyea) is the peacekeeper between her husband and her sister-in-law, whom she just met because she is now her guardian. However, as she tries to keep things chill, she is also stretched thin as her whole life has been unexpectedly uprooted. Her business, mental well-being, and even her marriage become playgrounds for the spirit to further torment her. 

A Haunting Beyond the House

I love that 825 Forest Road doesn’t isolate the haunting to one house. Horror fans see plenty of families move into haunted homes and get the Amityville treatment. So, the formula has gotten stale. Sadly, no matter how hard I root for this film, it still ends up in the shadows of similar titles.

It is interesting to see the events unfold through the eyes of each of our main characters as they each get a chapter of the movie dedicated to them. Yet, because 825 Forest Road becomes a predictable affair, seeing the cool moments from different angles feels like an exercise. While this structure attempts to add more layers to the story and give deeper glimpses into the characters, we already know what the twist is. So, it is a struggle to stay invested as you wait for the characters to catch up to the audience. 

Cognetti’s Latest: Scary or Just Predictable?

One of the things I appreciate about 825 Forest Road is that it did not give us another whitewashed small-town setting. We have so many POC in supporting roles who have actual lines and multiple scenes. I hate how this is still an uncommon practice in the industry, so I love to see it here. This also helped take some of the sting out of the film, which never fully achieves the scary heights I have come to expect from Cognetti. It is also one of the reasons I will show up for his next trip outside of the Hell House LLC universe. This is nowhere near the worst movie I have seen, even if it left me wanting more. I also love that while the film does feel a little paint by the numbers, the ending strays from the usual path. Setting it apart from other titles that would have forced a tidy bow onto this story. 

This Shudder original captures a haunted small town and gives a glimpse into more interesting avenues. It also has a few tense moments that make it hard not to lean in a little. However, it ultimately retreads familiar territory for the duration of the runtime. We get some cool images and ideas, but it never truly earns its runtime. 825 Forest Road has great bones. Sadly, it settles for a lesser story than the eerier one that was within its grasp.

Please give me a few minutes of your time as I take a weird deep dive into my favorite movie of all time. Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! is an incredibly divisive film, and I will never refute that. When I was thinking about what angle I wanted for this review, I was coming up blank. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mother is a compelling and beautifully written character so I knew it would fit this month’s theme. Cut to my 51st viewing of the film a few nights ago, a multi-hour call with a very good friend, and three pots of coffee…that’s when I found my angle.

For those who are unaware, the infinite monkey theorem states that if a monkey is given a typewriter and an unlimited amount of time, it will eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare. Even though NPR tried to disprove that, it still feels possible. If there was truly an unlimited amount of time, how could it not happen? But here’s where I have issues with this idea: who is the monkey, and who is the typewriter? Does Mother have the agency to actually change the outcome of her story? Is Him a passive observer? Does Him’s reactions to Mother’s actions dictate her next steps? And what can the death of first Mother/Foremother (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) and the awakening of third Mother/Maiden (Laurence Leboeuf) tell us? Join me as I try to decipher whatever the hell this movie is.

Mother! follows Mother, who awakens post-death from Foremother. Mother wanders around the house before being intercepted by Him. Him is a writer who has been frustrated by a bout of writer’s block. Man (Ed Harris) shows up out of the blue and is soon followed by Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer). After their two kids Youngest Brother (Brian Gleeson) and Oldest Son (Domnhall Gleeson) show up, and a fight ensues, one of them dies. This leads to a wild party to celebrate the deceased’s life in which Him eventually gets Mother pregnant. Him overcomes his writer’s block which leads to the downfall of everything.

When I first saw Mother! I was stunned. What started, on the film’s opening day, as a half-full theater ended with me and my friend sitting in a tearful silence. I went back the next day with another friend (the one I had a multi-hour phone call with for this piece) and watched the movie again. We both sat in stunned silence as the credits rolled. Thanks to being a MoviePass member (when it was still a movie a day), I was able to see Mother! every single day for the next five days. I have never had a theatrical experience like I did with this film. What was equally stunning was that Paramount Pictures had the guts to distribute a film like this.

Aronofsky has been very tightlipped about all of the intricacies of Mother!, and that’s okay. Frustrating, but okay. Here’s what we know. There are three main ideas behind Mother! and that is 1) the story of an artist and their muse 2) the destruction of Mother Earth and the most on-the-nose allegory 3) Him is God and Mother is Mary. While these ideas have been talked about to death, I want to look into how the infinite monkey theorem works here and how Him is experiencing one of the wildest examples of insanity seen in film.

Let’s take note of what we can infer as well as what is directly told to us. In the beginning, we see Foremother burn to death/explode the same way that Mother does. Maiden ends the film by turning over and saying, “Baby” as Mother does. Mother’s recitation of “Baby” is quite different from Maiden’s delivery. When we hear Mother say the line it sounds partially panicky, partially forlorn. Maiden’s almost sounds calm and accepting. To me, Mother’s delivery of the line almost feels like she’s calling out for the recently deceased child while Maiden’s call is toward Him.

The wording of this may sound offensive, but it is simply used in conjunction with the infinite monkey theorem. For the sake of my argument, I believe that Mother is the monkey. When I started writing this piece, I thought that Him might be the monkey until I realized I was wrong. The actual inciting incident of Mother! is when Man and Woman destroy the crystal. (The metaphorical biting of the apple.) Him is not just testing Mother, Him is also testing Man and Woman. When Him, Man, Woman, and Mother are sitting around the table drinking coffee, Mother brings out some snacks. One of the snacks is a bowl of what looks like cookies and two singular slices of fruit that look very similar to apples.

One can imply that Him is watching Man and Woman closely because he yearns for the romance he feels between them. I think he’s intently watching to see if they go for the two apples. Him has put Man and Woman in this scenario before and they have failed; here they have passed. It’s not until the breaking of the crystal that all hell [literally] breaks loose.

We see moments of reflection and acknowledgment in some actions. When Mother is asked by Him if Man can stay the night she replies with, “Of…course.” A tinge of sadness echoes through the line and she chokes on her words. When Man sees the crystal he asks if it was a gift from Mother and she replies with a singular, “No.” Again, her voice cracks, she sounds like she wants to cry. It’s almost as if she has been asked this before and something inside of Mother is telling her it was Foremother’s heart she was looking at.

There are countless examples of these moments that crossover between timelines. One can assume that if a monkey will eventually type the entire works of Shakespeare, it will also type a few of the same lines over and over. Multiple moments coexist within these different timelines, and something in Mother is letting her know that.

Him is God. The Great Storyteller. The most egotistical man that can exist. The true definition of good and evil. But is he writing Mother’s story or is she in charge of her own destiny? When Mother wakes up, she wanders around the house. She makes her way to the front door, opens it, and steps outside. Before she can take any further steps, as it can be interpreted as she wanted to continue walking, Him stops her. (This raises another question of whether or not she can exist outside of the confines of this astonishingly octagonal house.) It’s clear that Him remembers everything that happens with previous Mothers, but how far will he go to ensure Mother goes the path he truly wants?

Later in the day, Mother goes to one of the walls in the house to paint it. She puts muted yellow paint on the wall but doesn’t seem content with it. Mother puts her hand on the wall and sees the heart beating inside of it, a small amount of decay starts to grow. This prompts her to sprinkle a yellow substance in the paint for a more vibrant yellow, and she seems happy with the choice. This is one of many examples of the house speaking to Mother, warning her of potential mistakes.

Mother’s body fights back multiple times when she makes the wrong decision. Once Man is in the house, she goes to make tea. A cup is dropped and shattered, which sends a terrible ringing through her ears and a painful tightening of her chest. We know the crystal that reinvents the house is created upon the death of each Mother.

Later, Mother goes to the basement to grab sheets for Man after agreeing he can stay the night. As she grabs the sheets, the furnace kicks in. This seems to imply her decision to agree to Man’s stay is a mistake that Foremother made (which we know led to her demise). That same night, she flicks Man’s lighter off the dresser, which causes another bout of intense ear ringing and reveals a sliver of a charred floor. Once Woman is there, Mother finds Woman and Man making out. This reveals more of the charred floor.

Interestingly, we get a moment of Mother possibly making a choice previous Mothers have not. Mother and Woman go to the basement and Woman makes fun of Mother’s plain underwear. After Woman leaves the basement, Mother sees a pair of Woman’s bright yellow underwear sticking out of the washer. Mother throws the underwear behind the washer (presumably to save it and use at a later date) but there’s no furnace sound. Has she finally made a good decision?

After the brothers arrive and have their tiff, Mother is left alone in the house to clean up. The spot where Younger Brother died has now turned into a goopy hole that reveals the then-blocked-off furnace. She rests her head on the wall while emptying the bloody water bucket, and we see the heart again. It’s decaying more and more.

Mother is still making the wrong decisions.

What does all of this tell us? Mother has a certain amount of agency. But also that previous mother’s soul wants her to succeed. We don’t know how many times Him has gone through this series of events, we only know that it hasn’t worked up to this point. We also don’t know what he wants. When Mother becomes pregnant, Him gets over his writer’s block and writes the New Testament. I believe that he’s completely Id-driven at this point. Him lost sight of what he needed to do and remembers the fame that comes with his writings.

The last thing Him says to Mother before she perishes is, “You were home.” As with nearly everything in this film that can have two meanings. Was that line meant to imply that Mother was in her rightful home? Did he think that she was the one who would end this cataclysmic cycle of pain and torment? Or was he saying that Mother was home? Is this his smooth-talking way of getting her heart to retroactively find solace in his love to turn into the crystal he so desperately needs to make Maiden? 

Mother! has an undeniably dense amount of layers that become increasingly apparent with each viewing. As I finish this article I have the film on in the background and I’m noticing more pieces of evidence that make my point more apparent. An argument could possibly be made that Him is the monkey and Mother is the typewriter but that all falls down to perspective and selective examples.

If there’s one thing I can leave you with, it’s that Mother! is one of the most important films of the 21st century. With the recent death of David Lynch, many people feel that art in Hollywood is truly dead. Few filmmakers can make a truly astounding piece of art that transcends time with the conversation it creates. Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! is a film that will be discussed for decades, if not centuries. That is unless we completely destroy Mother Earth and destroy it from the inside out.