The Dead Mother (La madre muerta) is the second film from Spanish director Juanma Bajo Ulloa (Baby, Airbag); a tight psychological thriller where career criminal Ismael (Karra Elejalde) becomes obsessed with a crime from his past. Convinced that the victim who survived, a girl named Leire (Ana Álvarez), can still recognise him despite her deteriorating mental state. Along with his girlfriend Maite (Lio), they kidnap the girl and hope to a pretty penny from it. That is until Ismael forms an unusual bond with Leire.

I don’t know quite where to begin with this particular film because it completely split down the middle. For the most part, this was due to the general tone of the film and the way the film presents its disabled characters as trophies for affection, almost something like a pet. Partially this is done to help demonstrate just how unlikable a character Ismael is, but I don’t think it manages to escape being somewhat problematic on a conceptual level. There isn’t a lot of sympathy or sensitivity taken to portraying Leire’s mental state, especially when it comes to the way film shows her somehow enjoying elements of her capture in the developing relationship with Ismael. The film forces them into a father/daughter dynamic with a sexual aspect to it, which the film by no means condones but it doesn’t quite go as far as to condemn either. Perhaps this is the film’s fatal flaw; in showing a story populated by unlikable characters you end up creating an unlikable film.

A strong noir backbone serves to at least make the film look simply phenomenal, Ulloa and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe create this style and aesthetic which feels so sleazy and dirty, capturing feeling that would become so prevalent in the style of filmmakers like David Fincher for example. The use of these stark blues and greys creates a world devoid of light or anything positive, there’s never a visual tease of anything particularly positive. It’s that classic noir nihilism which keeps the film’s tension brewing over its surprisingly misused runtime; the way that certain chase sequences are shot and framed really makes them pop, especially that final chase which has some good use of accusatory framing of Ismael. There’s a great amount of focus on what isn’t in the frame, always positioning the peripheral vision of the camera as the primary focus of the audience. Ulloa rarely has our central three members of the cast in the frame together, keeping the atmosphere perfectly tense and the narrative always holding back that one surprise that could bring down the whole twisted operation.

As for the cast, it really is Karra Elejalde doing the best job here as Ismael. Playing this absolute villain with determined zeal and distinct apathy towards his surroundings, you always get this sense that he can snap at any time but is always consciously holding himself back as to appear in total control. It’s a supremely measured performance and one which really holds the rest of the movie together. The main performance I have issues with is Ana Álvarez as Leire, because it’s both just a bad performance as well as one which really stands out as problematic. Sure this was the nineties but it just makes watching her performance so uncomfortable, and that’s before the narrative subtext is overlayed on top of it. Lio’s performance as Maite is one which I think is more interesting than the film lets on, she’s an interesting evolving moral compass and Lio is great at playing that growing sense of disgust Maite feels for this situation.

The special features on this new Blu-ray are pretty impressive, with a good variety on show here. We get a 2008 documentary detailing the making of the film, allowing us some key insight into how the core characters were formed and moulded by the performers. This pairs nicely with the audio commentary track from Ulloa; I love it when we get a commentary track from the director themselves, it gives us an even deeper insight than any documentary gets into with the time allotted. There’s a neat gallery of promo and behind-the-scenes images as well. The limited edition comes with a booklet of essays and a CD copy of the excellent score by Bingen Mendizábal. The most interesting bonus comes in the form of a 4k restoration of Ulloa’s award-winning short film Victor’s Kingdom, which has some nightmarish uses of storybook-style narratives and is a great exercise in telling short-form mysteries.

On the whole, I don’t think I can recommend The Dead Mother, because while those bonus features are great, the film itself is just so unpleasant conceptually. To the point where it often borders in being shocking and discomforting for the sake of needing to shock the audience into paying attention because the pacing is inconsistent. Some of the performances feel really mismatched and the occasional glimpse of comedy struggle to hit the mark. I can see the visual genius at play here, but the narrative genius is still hidden.