Naomi Watts takes lead role in English-language horror remake 'Goodnight Mommy'

The English-language remake of Austrian cult horror hit Goodnight Mommy has found its Mommy. Variety reports that Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts has joined the Amazon Studios-backed project to both play the terrifying title role and serve as producer on the project, setting the stage for a return to horror for Watts after previous successes in the genre like The Ring. 

Based on the 2014 film of the same name, the story follows twin boys who begin to suspect that something is very wrong with their mother when she returns home with her face covered in bandages and begins acting strangely. As her erratic and often threatening behavior escalates, the boys develop a theory that their mother is actually an imposter hiding beneath the bandages, launching a terrifying, nerve-shredding mystery. 

After debuting at the Venice Film Festival in 2014, the film began its international rollout in 2015, and first came on the radar of American viewers with its absolutely horrifying trailer that summer. The trailer alone was a memorable experience for a lot of horror fans, and Goodnight Mommy soon went on to be one of the most acclaimed horror releases of 2015, eventually becoming Austria's official submission for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards for that year (though it didn't receive a nomination). 

The English-language remake is set to be directed by Matt Sobel (Take Me to the River) from a script by Kyle Warren (Lethal Weapon). Original Goodnight Mommy writer/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala are on board as executive producers, and now the project also has Watts — a high-powered genre star and Oscar-nominated actress — to take on the unnerving central role, pushing this project deeper into must-see territory for fans of the genre.