Darren Aronofsky is a master at heightening reality and causing the audience to feel, to have a heartbeat changed in the theatre. He creates peace and turns it to chaos in a mere matter of moments. We see this when Mother has prepared dinner for her husband. It is a quiet evening that is just underway and only minutes later their is pure chaos in the same home.
What heightens this experience is that, first, Mother is pregnant. Second, she needs her husband to step in and stop this madness, to speak to the people but he won’t. He allows it to happen. Third, Mother an only control one issue at a time, and with each one she handles another 3, 4, 5 break out. All of this conflict builds to a place psychologically builds inside of her, she contains it. But, when her child is killed and eaten she explodes and begins taking lives, even her own. She would rather end it all then allow any more to occur.
Aronofsky’s use of one location adds to the suspense and nerve racking as we don’t know where, conceptually, we are or she is. A Home should be a place where peace is enjoyed and made, but Him only invites more and more chaos, and this element in the story causes us to feel trapped and have a desire to react just like Mother. We, the viewer become part of the story rather than just watching another film. And this is because Aronofsky has something to say, and he does so in a violently brutal way that is shocking, horrifying, and unconscionable. He makes it look a lot like how humanity treats one another and the earth in our current era as well as throughout history. And he posts the question, when will it end? And when will man participate in the healing rather than destroying one another and blaming it on a higher power?
