‘I’ll Play Mother’: Psychological Horror Starring Susanne Wuest And ‘Doctor Who’ Actor Jo Martin Starts Production
17.04.2023 - 14:01
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Cameras have started rolling on the psychological horror pic I’ll Play Mother from The Number 44, the UK-based production house co-founded by filmmaker Ben Charles Edwards (A Bird Flew In).
The film stars Susanne Wuest (Goodnight Mummy), Jo Martin (Doctor Who, Back to Life), and Shubham Saraf (A Suitable Boy), with Brad Watson (The Siege) directing from a screenplay by Libby Adam.
Billed as a “twisted psychological horror about the relentless and unending paranoia of parenthood,” the film follows two children who are placed into the care system after the death of their birth mother. At this point, they realize there is something sinister at play.
The full synopsis reads: Michelle (Susanne Wuest) and Cyrus (Shubham Saraf) have spent the past two years having every minute detail of their personal lives inspected, dissected, and judged. At last, they have been cleared for adoption and are entering the family-finding phase. Unfortunately, it is not as fulfilling as they had hoped it would be, for they are plagued by the old wounds, past traumas, and disagreements that sullied the journey to get there. Things have been said that cannot be unsaid. Then they meet the orphaned children and, for a while, it looks as though everything might finally be falling into place.
This halcyon phase comes under threat when the youngest child, pining for his dead mother, fashions a life-sized ‘Pretend Mummy’ from objects he finds in storage. Under the watchful eye of their assigned social worker, and the unblinking face of the mannequin, the couple’s relationship begins to fracture. Doubts arise over their competency as parents as Cyrus, while home alone with the children, witnesses a multitude of strange and incomprehensible