Overview: Ismael (Karra Elejalde, Timecrimes) breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognized him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release.

As he spends more time with her a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfill his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever.

A gothic thriller with pitch-black humor that recalls the Coen brothers, Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s sophomore feature won a host of prestigious international awards and was a precursor to the Spanish genre explosion.

Blu-ray Verdict: Cold-blooded, rotten-to-the-core thief Ismael kills a woman during a burglary, and all whilst her young daughter is watching. Years later he finds her as a beautiful, but semi-catatonic teenager at the funny farm. He kidnaps her, intending to off her, but gets fascinated and obsessed with her, which doesn’t go over well with Ismael’s equally rotten and greedy (aka jealous) girlfriend Maite!

Director Juanma Bajo Ulloa (who was in his mid-20s when he made this, his second feature) has created one of the most disturbing psychosexual Euro-thrillers in recent years, in my humble opinion. The Dead Mother (aka Madre Muerta) is a dark, yet visually stunning journey into sheer madness guided with some mighty fine wicked comedic touches.

Weird; bizarre and macabre, accompanied by the incredible symphonic material by Bingen Mendizábal, The Dead Mother is, at the very least, a beautiful suite in and unto itself; even without the film as the visual entity (said musical score suite is now added here on a disc of its own). Add to that the extraordinary photography by Javier Aguirresarrobe, cinematic at its most finest, and you can be sure of something a little out of the commonplace.

In closing, more emotional involving than Funny Games, more adult in nature than Iglesia, The Dead Mother is a truly compelling, at times cerebral and ghoulishly unpredictable masterpiece not to be missed.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:
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 and an appreciation by Nacho Vigalond
Limited Edition Soundtrack CD featuring Bingen Mendizábal’s sumptuous score
Limited Edition (only 3000 copies), presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of markings