A hilariously awful collision of soap opera and horror movie, “Amelia’s Children” teeters so precariously on the cliff top of comedy that one wishes the director, Gabriel Abrantes, had dared to kick it over the edge.
Sadly, that does not happen, despite a baffling scene that finds a mother and her two adult sons wiggling enthusiastically to “The Girl From Ipanema.” Witnessing this dismaying display is Riley (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a sharp New Yorker who is beginning to regret giving her boyfriend, Ed (a ruinously bland Carloto Cotta), the gift of a D.N.A. ancestry test for his 31st birthday. Having learned of the existence of his biological mother and a twin sibling, Ed has brought Riley to this Portuguese villa to meet his newfound family. And possibly cause her to lose her mind.
“These people are weird,” Riley opines with futile understatement, given that Ed appears mesmerized by his strangely intense brother, Manuel (also played by Cotta, in sexy-handyman mode), and their creepy mother, Amelia (Anabela Moreira). A humpbacked crone and duck-lipped victim of excessive plastic surgery, Amelia is consumed by a vanity that can’t be satisfied by the surgeon’s knife. Viewers intent on plumbing the supernatural secret of her glamour-puss aspirations, though, will find more answers in her bedtime shenanigans than in the strange brown liquid she drops into her guests’ tea.
A movie of bad dreams and worse vibes, “Amelia’s Children” is a peculiar, perverse addition to the already-overflowing well of monstrous-mommy pictures. Vasco Viana’s spiffy cinematography classes things up, but the film is too dismal — and its hero too dumb — to qualify as outright camp. Only Riley, as she transforms from girlfriend to hellion, is worth watching: We can’t help but feel that she’s had Amelia’s number all along.
Amelia’s Children
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms.
