Genre: Horror
Premise: A mother and her twin teenage sons live in a remote cabin where they’ve developed a system to protect themselves from the evil that has destroyed the rest of the world.
About: Shawn Levy can’t get enough! Even after becoming Netflix’s number 2 man behind Reed Hastings, the Stranger Things producer wants an even bigger piece of the entertainment pie. This time he’s teaming up with Lionsgate to produce today’s spec script, written by newbies Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby. Yes, Coughlin and Grassby have a couple of produced credits, but come on, one look at those credits and you know they had nothing to do with this sale. I’m pointing this out as a reminder that it’s possible for all of you to break in with a spec script. Never give up. Never surrender!
Writer: Kevin Coughlin & Ryan Grassby.
Details: 103 pages
Are crazy moms the new trend??
I dunno.
First Raised by Wolves and now this! I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get a coalition of mothers marching down Sunset Boulevard infuriated about their stereotyped representation in film. Until then, let’s all enjoy the craziness. Because it’s oh so boring when everything is running smoothly, don’t you think?
Momma lives in a remote cabin in the woods with her 14 year old twin boys, Nolan and Samuel. We can tell right away that something’s up. They have to pluck crickets, pick plums, and and set squirrel traps just to eat. Nothing like a plum squirrel sandwich.
Oh, and they all wear ropes around their waists that are tied to the house. Nobody can ever go anywhere without a rope. They’re like Motherland’s version of corona masks. Except instead of being shamed on Twitter, you’re killed.
By who?
That would be the “evil.” The “evil” is what destroyed the rest of the world, leaving this family as the only three human beings left. Luckily, Momma figured out how to defeat Evil. You have to always wear a rope. Lose the rope and Evil will snatch you up and pull you away.
Whereas Samuel is Team Rope, Nolan has lots of questions about the ordeal. Just how far has Mother looked? Is she SURE they’re the last people on the planet? Mother says she is absolutely sure.
However, things get real when Momma dies and they start starving. It would sure be nice, Nolan thinks, if they could go beyond the radius of these stupid ropes to look for more food. One day, he’s had it. So he goes to the edge of his rope and screams, “Help!”
Twenty minutes later, a hiker shows up. He sees the emaciated Nolan and tells him he can help. Let’s get you back to my truck. Just then, Samuel shows up with his crossbow. He tells the man, who he believes is the Evil, to leave. Confused, the man pleads his case, only to be shot.
Nolan and Samuel will have to figure out soon which worldview is the real one. Cause either more people are going to show up looking for this man, or Evil in Disguise is going to keep coming until it’s tricked and murdered them. The day of reckoning is near.
One word I’d use to describe this script?
Ambitious.
I wouldn’t have said that when I started reading it. But by the time I finished it, I realized there were a couple of complex themes being explored. Were those themes explored successfully? I’ll get there in a second. First, let’s break Motherhood down.
Here’s what I liked about the script. It built its entire structure around your expectations. Remember that awful M. Night movie, The Village? The one where a bunch of people are living in the year 1850, deep within a forest village? Then, at the end of the movie, we realize they’ve all been tricked and it’s actually present day?
Motherland could’ve done the same thing. Instead, it leans into the possibility that the children are being lied to. That makes us think, “Oh, we’ve been down this road before. It’s another Village situation!” This makes us feel smart, like we’re ahead of the story.
But then, just as we believe that the big reveal will be made and we can throw our hands up in victory: “See! We knew all along! We’re movie cinephiles!!!” Instead, Coughlin and Grassby start throwing in doubts that we’re living in the village. Maybe, just maybe, Mother was being truthful the whole time.
This is what saves the script. Because now, in these final 30 pages, you’re not sure which is true. Were the kids lied to or is there really an “evil?”
On top of that, Motherland explores the theme of perception in a very thoughtful way. All of us are the sum of our influences. Our parents, our friends, our faith, the things we read, the news we consume. All of that forms our belief system – how we see the world.
Motherland strips that down so that there’s only one influence – her. And what that does is it allows us to see how powerful influence can be. If you’re a kid who’s only ever known one parental figure and, therefore, they are the only one providing you with a worldview, it’s possible for you to have a completely incorrect worldview despite the fact that you’re positive it’s the right one.
That reality alone is a horror movie.
Because think about it. That’s exactly what’s going on right now. We’re all following our own “Mothers” who are giving us all the “correct” information, and we’re basing our entire approach to life around that. And many of us, despite not knowing it, are dead wrong in our world view. And no, I’m not going to get into the specifics about who because it literally happens on all sides.
But the point is, by distilling everything down to one influencing variable, it puts a spotlight on the theme of influence so that we understand how powerful it can be.
With that being said, there were times where the script couldn’t stand on its own two feet due to its shaky rule set. For example, the ropes. Let’s think about this for a second. We’re told that the ropes are magical lassos protecting us from the “evil.” If your rope is cut, you are susceptible to being eaten or murdered or taken away by the “evil.”
This rule alone had issues. The mother can see Evil in physical form but the kids cannot? So wait. If the evil has the choice of not showing itself, which it clearly does since the kids don’t see it, then wouldn’t it choose not to be seen by Momma as well?
That would allow it the advantage of being able to sneak up on Momma whenever it wanted. Sure, staring at momma in the form of a creepy delusional old woman makes for a creepy moment. But it’s working against its own goal, which is to kill her. Every time you show me how scary you can be, I’m going to be even more diligent about making sure I don’t fall for your tricks.
But that isn’t the real part that bothered me. The real part was the rope carried a convenient dramatic safeguard for the writer. Had there been no rope, the kids would’ve easily been able to confirm whether there was a Walmart six blocks away. Which made me think back to the original purpose of the rope. Which is to protect each of them from Evil killing them.
So Evil can’t kill people if they have a *rope* around them??? What????
The more you thought about it, the less it made sense. And because that rule was a story pillar (a centerpiece for how the story operated), it weakened the over impact. Again, this is why A Quiet Place was such a perfect concept execution. No crazy conflicting rules. If you made a noise, you were dead.
I’m torn about Motherland.
It’s imaginatively sloppy, which is about as backward a compliment as I can give. But that rope stuff – I concede that that type of visual works well in horror. Combine that with the “evil” being able to take on many creepy forms and you’ve got yourself a really effective trailer. There may be something here. It’s enough for me to recommend the read. But just barely.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Have a character answer their own question – This is an old dialogue trick that I’ve always liked. At one point, Nolan asks Momma if what she’s saying about the world is true. Normally, these kinds of question and answer exchanges have NOTHING to do with the characters. They’re solely put there as a way for the writer to get exposition to the reader. The average writer would then have Momma explain what happened to the world to convince her son that, yes, it’s all real. Instead, Coughlin and Grassby have Momma give Nolan a stern look. Nolan then begins to recite the story *that mother has already told him dozens of times before about what happened to the world*. It’s all exposition but we don’t notice it as much when the character asking the question is also answering. For whatever reason, there’s something about when Character A asks and Character B answers that screams, “HERE’S EXPOSITION FOR YOU.” Cover that up with a character answering their own question.
