The Dead Mother (1993) Radiance Films Blu-ray Review

Plot:

Years after he kills a child’s mother in a home robbery, the killer discovers that the child has grown up and is living at a care facility nearby where he has her kidnapped, with the intention of getting a ransom … but things don’t go the way he thinks they will.

Review:

A home robbery goes horribly awry when the robber, a young man named Ismael (Karra Elejalde), casually and ruthlessly guns down the homeowner, the mother of a little girl named Leire who witnesses the murder. Ismael turns the weapon on her as well, but we don’t know exactly what happens after that until much later. At least ten years pass and Ismael is still a cold-blooded criminal, committing one crime after another, and when he violently murders his boss at his workplace – a bar – over a stupid infraction and disagreement, Ismael and his girlfriend Maite (Lio) take the opportunity to squat in his dead boss’s huge house for the next few weeks while they can. Meanwhile, Ismael has a chance encounter with a young woman living in a care facility for developmentally disabled young people, and he swears that the young woman is Leire (played by Ana Alvarez), the girl he orphaned all those years ago. Thinking that she recognized him and will tell the cops, he kidnaps her and imprisons her in the huge house, chaining her to the bed, but he doesn’t seem to realize that Leire is not only mute, but completely mentally impaired. He and Maite come up with a sloppy plan to ransom her back to the facility, but in the process Ismael comes to be incredibly curious about the girl, as she doesn’t respond to his feeble attempts at humor. Thinking he can make her laugh, he goes to extreme attempts to get through to her, but in that strange process he develops an intense attraction to this child-woman who can’t protest if he touches her or goes any further with her. Inciting the wrath and fury of Maite, who becomes jealous of the virtually comatose Leire, she takes steps for a very personal revenge, and this creates a fissure between the two criminals who love/hate each other with a passion.

A very dark and strangely humorous (at times) film noir with a decidedly twisted plot that goes places you know it’s headed, but the journey is incredibly compelling and intense and you simply can’t look away. Filmmaker Juanma Bajo Ulloa gives the film an almost horror movie approach because at times the subject matter and its unflinching style are so lurid, but it’s also a very interesting character study and a thriller, so it’s quite a high wire balancing act for Ulloa, who succeeds at all this. I found the movie very memorable and to my liking, so I’m pleased to report that the film is a real gem and a discovery worth recommending.

Radiance Films recently released a limited edition (3000 units) Blu-ray of The Dead Mother, and the film looks great in a 4K restoration, with some choice bonus features, including a commentary, a short film, an insert booklet, the soundtrack on CD, and much more.

Bonus Materials

• 4K restoration of the film supervised and approved by director Juanma Bajo Ulloa
• Uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio
• Audio commentary by Bajo Ulloa
• The Story of La Madre Muerta – a documentary on the making of the film featuring behind-the-scenes images and interviews with the cast and crew
• Victor’s Kingdom [El reino de Victor] (1989, 38 mins) – Goya Award-winning short film by Ulloa, restored in 4K
• Gallery of behind-the-scenes and promotional imagery
• Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
• Limited Edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by Xavier Aldana Reyes, author of Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration and Cultural Adaptation, and newly translated archival writing by Juanma Bajo Ulloa, co-writer Eduardo Bajo Ulloa
• Limited Edition soundtrack CD featuring Bingen Mendizábal’s sumptuous score