As Laura investigates the strange goings-on in the village, she discovers something strange in her late father’s greenhouse. Unfortunately, her discovery isn’t a rotten tomato plant or a rudely-shaped fruit or vegetable! Instead, Laura discovers a strange being that, potentially, has the power to end her life.
In the movie, Laura escapes from the village alive. However, she falls prey to the mysterious force that is taking up residence in the greenhouse. Let’s take a closer look at the movie to see if this is true or if Laura was just lucky.
How does the movie begin?
The opening scene of the film features a naked man walking through a very muddy pond. We never see his face, but we later learn that this man is Laura’s father. ..
After taking a few steps into the pond, the man sinks and it is at this point that we can assume he has taken his own life. ..
In the future, we meet Laura. She is clearly struggling with her health, as she throws up at home and struggles to keep up with the demands of her job. We see her struggle to make ends meet and feel like she is not doing enough to help herself.
After spending the night with an ex-lover, Laura takes some drugs and overdoses. She collapses on the bathroom floor and while unconscious, she has visions of black water entering her mouth and a hand reaching out to her from the water.
Laura doesn’t die from the overdose – this would have been a much shorter film otherwise! Instead, she picks herself up and goes to work, where she discovers her estranged mother Celia has been trying to call her.
Celia returns the call and asks her mother how she knew where she was. Her mother replies, “the internet” and that she had a feeling that Laura was in pain.
After speaking to her mother, Laura quits her job and makes the journey back to the village where she spent an unhappy childhood.
When Laura returns to her mother’s village, she notices that the villagers have not aged. She soon realizes that this is not due to a fountain of youth, but something more sinister. ..
Do Laura and Celia get along?
Celia and Laura start to argue immediately upon Laura’s return home. Celia wants to take her for a walk in the garden, but Laura remembers the garden as a place where she could hide from her mother. Her memories of the garden are different, however, as she remembers it as a place where she could escape from her mother.
In the early scenes, we learn that Celia mistreated Laura when she was a child. Celia is mostly unrepentant and this causes a heated argument between them wherein Laura calls Celia a “sadistic bitch.”
Laura spends time outside of the house with her childhood friend, Abi. Abi is the only woman who seems to have grown older during their years apart. ..
After spending time with Abi – who we later learn is reporting Laura’s whereabouts to Celia – Laura returns to her childhood home. Celia seemingly tries to make amends with her daughter but it’s clear that she doesn’t have the best of intentions. Not only does she put sedatives in Laura’s drink and food to make her fall asleep but she also drags her daughter’s unconscious body into the garden after the drugs have taken effect.
Unfortunately, Celia doesn’t allow Laura to take a walk with her. She has other plans, but as Laura starts to stir, we don’t know what these plans are. Celia then scurries back into the house.
After a night of sleepwalking, Laura asks her mother if she used to sleepwalk as a child. Celia tells her that she did but we know that she is lying to cover up her actions the night before.
Why does Celia drug her daughter?
Celia is a less-than-loving mother who has a reason for drugging her daughter that goes beyond mere cruelty. The clues to her behaviour are linked to the strange notes that are hanging from the trees, with requests and words of thanks from the villagers to some kind of God. ..
Some of the villagers in the movie secrete a black liquid which is something Laura also begins to experience. There is also a feud between the villagers and Ken, the father of Abi and the only Christian in the village. These are also clues that point back to Celia.
As the movie progresses, we learn that Celia is a leader of a cult that is made up of everybody except Ken. Laura becomes aware of this when she looks through the window of a church and sees her mother feeding the villagers a black liquid that is dripping from her breasts. The cult’s members believe that this black liquid will make them invincible and able to conquer the world.
The villagers are all naked and are desperate to sample what Celia is giving them. This liquid is the source of their agelessness, which might explain why they start to have sex with one another after becoming invigorated.
Laura is shocked at what she sees and is further disturbed when she notices her arm is starting to rot. She goes to visit Abi but it’s Ken who opens the door. He isn’t welcoming, despite his Christian beliefs, and he asks Laura if she returned home to take her “mother’s milk.”
Ken tells Laura that Celia changed the village with her “poison.” He then talks to her about her dad and how he didn’t kill himself when he stepped into the pond. According to Ken, he gave his life as a sacrifice. Laura wants to know more but when Ken pulls a gun on her, she is forced to flee.
The bizarre story of a woman who stands at the front of a church feeding people black goo from her breasts has captured the attention of many people. ..
What is going on in the village?
After fleeing from Ken, Laura bumps into one of the villagers who forces her towards her father’s greenhouse. He tells her Celia has given him permission to hurt her and he pushes her towards an area of the greenhouse that leads to a pool of water on the other side of a barrier.
The man clearly intends to sacrifice Laura to something but when that ‘something’ appears, it is the man who meets his fate.
A giant woman with worms falling out of her mouth has been spotted in a greenhouse in California. This is not what most people were expecting, so it’s an interesting discovery. ..
A giant woman cradles a man in her breasts and kills him by emptying the worms from her mouth into his. ..
Laura is taken aback when she runs into Abi and Celia in the greenhouse. The women force her to return, and before she can get far, she runs into another group of women. ..
We learn more about Celia’s backstory and from this, we can decipher the reason behind the appearance of the strange being, aka the matriarch.
Celia reveals that her husband couldn’t help her conceive so he sacrificed his life to a goddess that caused Celia to become pregnant with Laura. Not only this but the goddess also gave Celia the power of life through the black liquid that we earlier saw being secreted from her breasts. Celia started to sell this to the villagers in exchange for power and wealth. But when Celia realised her powers were receding, she summoned her daughter back home so she could sacrifice her to the goddess – now able to materialise in the greenhouse – and regain her powers anew. ..
What happens to Laura?
Celia tries to sacrifice Laura to the goddess, but the being doesn’t harm her. Around this time, Ken shows up wielding a shotgun and wants to know why Abi is present. He learns that Abi needs Celia’s power to escape the cancer that had once threatened to take her life. This causes him to snap and he kills himself with a garden fork.
The goddess then frees Laura, leaving her unharmed. Laura grabs Ken’s shotgun and shoots at the barrier which causes the goddess to disappear.
Laura forces Celia to return to the church. Celia asks the naked villagers if they love her. When they say they do, Laura, upon realizing the influence Celia has on the villagers, knocks her mother to the floor with a gun and proceeds to smash her head to a pulp.
Laura then goes to the muddy pond where her father previously sacrificed himself and proceeds to walk through the mud until she also sinks and presumably drowns.
Why did Laura kill herself?
In the end of the movie, it is not clear why Laura sacrificed herself. It could be that she wanted to be with her father, but it is also possible that the goddess lured her in to sacrifice herself. The movie doesn’t seem to offer up a real explanation behind Laura’s final act, but if you can decipher the ending, be sure to let us know by leaving us a comment below.
The matriarch in the new Matriarch movie is a powerful and compelling character. She is a strong advocate for her family and their needs, and she is able to lead them through difficult times. The matriarch is a valuable role model for young women, and I enjoyed watching her story unfold.
