Mother Superior, which Marie Alice Wolfszahn wrote as well, starts with character credits displayed as files and logs. In Wolfszahn’s debut, the limited cast is framed with glaringly feminist reports and articles. The opening is overlaid by heavy breaths and a cursed occult score, akin to Argento’s Suspiria and the hoarse breaths of its headmistress. As a renowned film critic said, Mother Superior is heavy with pastiche in both style and substance. A narrative driven piece, is quickly abandoned for a different narrative about a headmistress, for the better and the worse of it, during its 70 minute run time.
In shifts to a 1975 setting where war and misogyny are the charismatic rulers of the realm. Nurse Sigrun Fink (Isabella Handler) arrives at The Rosenkreuz Manor to take care of the Baroness Mrs. Heidenreich (Inge Maux). Through an analog, Wolfszahn framed Mother Superior with an interrogation. From the very beginning, it is clear that Mrs. Heidenreich’s body was discovered in a melted state after Sigrun’s arrival. And Sigrun, her part, is being interrogated for her suspected involvement. It’s an unfortunate narrative conceit, sapping Mother Superior of its grounded, earthly tension.
Yet, the first feature of Wolfszahn is rich with dark beauty. The Rosenkreuz Manor serves as a setting, which pays homage to the Towers’ manuscripts and is truly a spectacle of a setting. Accessible yet oppressively grand, Wolfszahn makes use of July Skone and Stefan Voglsinger’s chilling and discordant score to cast the wings and every shadow of the manor in enticing tension. At first, Sigrun wanders aimlessly. Aside from attending to Mrs. Heidenreich’s insomnia and Parkinson’s, she creeps and skulks in the night like a specter, shifting out of view.
Soon, storytelling norms present themselves, giving Sigrun a goal, which puts the time spent in the manor and interrogation into context. A foster child, Sigrun hopes to find her real parents. With blood lineage like hers, as Mrs. Heidenreich would say. Heidenreich is an ex-aryan maternity nurse that has some links to the hospital where Sigrun’s mother might have been. As the detectives that interrogated her noted, Sigrun wanted to find her “Nazi archive” somewhere in the manor.
War, race, and the mistakes of a nation are only scantily touched upon. Most importantly, Mother Superior is a tale of folk feminism. Black magic, pagan statues, and bewildering images of women in white who hiss in the dark gives substance to the power of women, the impotent might of the planets, the might of cosmic eggs, and moon goddesses.
Heidenreich lays out a few of the basic rules for Sigrun to follow while at Rosenkreuz. Meat will be served only on Fridays. Wednesdays are for resting. Heidenreich also bans Sigrun from stepping outside of the grounds. For her part, Mother Superior is bound to the commandments of Roberts Eggers and Goran Stolevski. Hellbenders and knotted hearts imagery punctuate the transitions and the passage of time. Blood is shed and chants are cast. Sigrun is beholden to certain stylistic imperatives, responding from within the vision rather than reason or her self-interest.
It’s a well-known cliché with gothic and arthouse material and so, Mother Superior won’t appeal to different viewers. The film is a thoughtful mix of some tender horror and also shows promise of innovation in horror storytelling. Like Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the film is ominously self-aware, and sultry, and it works wonderfully. Wolfszahn employs a narrative architecture in which he places stories within stories, and while it’s all style over substance, Mother Superior triumphs as an enchanting little work of art.
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