‘Nightbitch’ review: it’s a dog’s life for Amy Adams in mediocre horror comedy

In theory, this offbeat horror comedy is an easy sell. Perennial Oscar nominee Amy Adams plays a stay-at-home mum who feels so frustrated and cut off from her former life as an artist that she thinks she is turning into a dog. Or maybe she really is transforming into a red-haired husky? Either way, Nightbitch makes plenty of very valid points about traditional gender roles and the oppressive nature of new parenthood. But it never fully sinks its teeth into a meaty premise; it’s briefly ferocious where it could have been completely feral. 

Adams’ Mother – she is never given a name, and neither are her Husband or Son – is clearly struggling. She tries really hard with her two-year-old (jointly played by twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden), but is also bored, exhausted and almost repulsed by the other new mothers in her affluent commuter suburb. Husband (Scoot McNairy) spends most of the week away with work and seems inattentive to the point of being neglectful. When he takes on bathtime duties for a change, he keeps calling for Mother to assist – until she snaps and points out that she usually has to do this all by herself.

Director Marielle Heller has previously made films with very pronounced moods: 2018’s stingingly poignant portrait of a literary forger Can You Ever Forgive Me? and 2019’s warmhearted Fred Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. But Nightbitch feels more tonally uneven as it weaves on-the-nose social commentary with moderate shocks such as Mother discovering a tuft of hair on her lower back – is she really growing a tail? Though we do eventually see her become a husky, Heller shoots the transformation scenes coyly, deliberately holding back from full body horror.

Of course, the true terror here is the overwhelming parenthood trap that Mother has unwittingly fallen into – one Husband has managed to dodge, seemingly without trying, simply because he’s a man. Still, it’s hard not to wish Heller would really lean into the surreal potential of her source material, Rachel Yoder’s spiky 2021 novel Nightbitch. There are glimmers of the fiercer, freakier film this might have been. Jessica Harper, star of the original 1977 Suspiria movie, has an intriguing role as a local librarian who may know more about Mother’s doggy adventures than she lets on.

In fairness, there are some strikingly strange moments, particularly when Mother lets her canine tendencies peek out in public. And her character arc certainly plays out in a way that feels real and well-meaning, even when Heller’s insights about self-esteem and female resilience lack freshness. Along the way, her screenplay aims the odd soft blow at Mother’s pretentious artist friends without ever threatening to draw blood. For a film called Nightbitch, it lacks the bark and bite necessary to become top dog.

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