By RICH CROSS
An intimate, domestic horror with a focus on maternal angst and mental health, Adalynn depicts the pressure cooker that builds around the first bewildering days of motherhood. It can be a daunting challenge for any parent, and in this case, it’s made worse by the reverberations of agonising personal trauma. The result is an intense narrative which leaves the viewer experiencing the same sense of dislocation and doubt that overwhelms this fragile family.
Young mum Adalynn has brought her newborn home from the hospital. Her husband has to attend a work conference, leaving her to care for the new infant alone. Sydney Carvill delivers a spirited performance as Adalynn, carrying large sections of the film alone as her character wrestles with postpartum depression, poor impulse control, immersive delusions and the fear that her child has been targeted by a mysterious unseen menace. She’s put through an emotional wringer as Adalynn’s grip on reality comes unstuck, and the jump scares multiply. The bold musical score by Vahid Jahandari ratchets up the sense of peril, particularly in the second act – the most impressive section.
The plot resets itself many times, as whole sequences are revealed as dreams or disturbing hallucinations. It’s an effective conceit for any dramatist, but when overused (as it is here), it risks leaving the impression that on-screen events are arbitrary and without consequence. The script by Jerrod D. Brito does have valid things to say about resilience and the costs of aspiring to perfect parenthood, and director Jacob Byrd keeps things up close and on edge throughout. But the film’s final reveal is robbed of impact by something self-evident from the opening scene.
ADALYNN is available now on DVD and through streaming services in the US.
