One of the most talked about and genuinely creepy debut films in years, this tale of two young twins who transform their resentment towards their mother into a fatal illusion about her identity is an unsettling serving of Austrian horror.

In the heat of the summer in an isolated rural house, nine-year-old twins Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) await the return of their mother (Susanne Wuest) who is coming home to recuperate after undergoing cosmetic surgery. Wrapped in bandages - her face now completely hidden except for two penetrating eyeholes - she demands absolute peace and quiet in order to rest. As she becomes more and more strict, this new regime quickly begins to grate on the two boys, leading them to grow restless and retreat ever further into their own private world. With anger and suspicion mounting, their imaginations begin to run wild. Why is she suddenly so cold and callous? What happened to her face? Suffice to say that’s just the start of this twisted and deeply unsettling family saga that becomes increasingly terrifying as the boys' antagonism toward their mother starts to spiral out of control.

Full of foreboding and malevolent twists, debut writer-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala - respectively the partner and nephew of the ever-provocative Ulrich Seidl (Import/Export, Paradise Trilogy) - deliver an Austrian nightmare of surgical precision the likes of which we've not seen since Michael Haneke unleashed Funny Games. Demonstrating that rare ability to thrill both high and lowbrow fans of the genre, this expertly crafted slow-burn chiller feels like the arrival of a startling new breed of arthouse horror.

• There's a new breed of horror film emerging in cinema. Book a ticket for Goodnight Mommy online and we'll send you a code to get 10% off tickets to see The Witch (Fri 11 March for at least two weeks), a gripping horror/thriller hybrid about a family fallen prey to an ancient evil in the woods

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