Suspense, thriller, psychological, drama, stardom, American, WWII, family, horror
Out in the middle of nowhere, far away from the city and with mother nature for neighbors instead of humans, lives a reclusive family of three. A wheelchair-bound father who is unable to care for himself, a patriotic and cautious German mother; together they create a pressure cooker-like environment for their only daughter Pearl, who swings like a pendulum between love and fear, and goes mad, as a result. Only two members of this family unit are functional enough to carry out the duties of managing the house and farm, which is a performance, the mother insists, that is essential for them to remain nondescript and safe from the prying eyes of the Allies. Among other things, this is one source of contention between Pearl and her mother, as Pearl dreams of stardom, believing that charm and talent can win her the adoration of audience strangers, and through them, find something to replace the maternal love that she’s always been denied.
It isn’t clear at first that Pearl’s mother hates her daughter, for she is never once physically abusive, just strict and coldly rational. But Pearl is cleverer than her beguiling expressions let on, and more sensitive to social cues and emotional nuances than people think. She confronts her mother about it as a one-in-a-million chance to pursue her dream comes up around the corner — and her mother reveals without remorse that she loathes, fears and hates the “failure” that is her unnatural daughter, who “does things when you think nobody is watching.” It becomes obvious then, that to the mother, only her infirmed husband, whose handicap is so severe that it’s difficult to describe him as being alive, is the only one of the family unit who is worthy of being “seen”; herself, as a German, and her daughter, as a psychopath, are not.
However, it is difficult to judge Pearl as a born psychopath when the conditions of her upbringing appear so large and looming. Home-schooled, repressed, controlled and unloved, is she a monster of her mother’s making, or instinctively cold and trigger-happy?
In any case, the horror in this film comes across as highly anticipated, bloody murder sprees that feel vindictive and liberating, given that this is among the handful of avenues where Pearl is free. Perhaps the true horror all along was finding out just how relatable Pearl’s context and heart-baring monologue is.
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