Mother Nocturna is a beautifully shot, atmospheric Italian Gothic film. While writer/director Daniele Campea’s work truly looks breathtaking at times, with its moody shots of full moons and shadows, it sometimes feels like the style overpowers the substance. The film’s visuals are a feast, but the story somewhat lacks.

The Italian feature follows a mother and biologist, Agnese (Susanna Costaglione), recently released from a mental institution and reunited with her family, which includes her daughter Arianna (Sofia Ponente) and her husband Ricardo (Edoardo Oliva). Agnese’ main interest and area of study deals with wolves. She spends a lot of the runtime watching them, studying them, and eventually taking on their traits.

Shortly after Agnese leaves the mental hospital and rejoins her family, they move to a remote cabin. They’re forced to leave the city due to a growing pandemic. Yes, that aspect of the movie has 2020 vibes, but it’s a mere subplot, not the focus. For a while, at least, the family tries to do their best in a very tough situation. However, there’s a lot of strain among the three-member unit. Arianna and Agnese have a difficult time truly communicating with each other. Meanwhile, Ricardo eventually goes back to the city to take care of a patient. He works as a doctor, but Agnese isn’t so sure that he’s not having an affair. Her accusations only drive a deeper wedge between mother and daughter, who defends her father.

Eventually, it’s also shared that Agnese has such severe struggles and mental health challenges because she blames herself for the death of her son. This profound grief certainly explains some of her behavior. That said, her actions grow weirder and weirder as the movie progresses. She frequently sleepwalks and winds up in the woods surrounding the cabin. It’s there that she sees a creature with glowing eyes referred to as The God (Elena Battarin). These sequences are both eerie and mesmerizing, but the symbolism and purpose of them are never quite clear.

The film, overall, can feel quite frustrating at times. So much emphasis falls on the visuals that the story suffers. It feels like for at least half the runtime, viewers know very little about the characters. Instead, we get frequent shots of the gloomy cabin, the woods, and the full moon. Eventually, characters reveal certain important aspects about themselves, which clarifies some of their actions. It just feels like those moments take too long to happen.

Mother Nocturna deserves a watch for its images alone. They create a stunning Gothic atmosphere. However, this film is a very slow burn with a befuddling ending. At too many points this work feels like more style than substance.