A Mother’s Embrace – Review | Screambox (3/5)

A MOTHER’S EMBRACE on Screambox is a Brazilian horror movie (org. title: Abraço de Mãe). It’s a movie that deals with grief and trauma, which can be understood and watched in several ways. Read our full A Mother’s Embrace horror movie review here!

A MOTHER’S EMBRACE is a new horror movie on Screambox. This is a movie from Brazil (org. title: Abraço de Mãe) that plays out across several decades. Or rather, we meet our main character as a child and then follow her as an adult.

In this horror movie, grief and trauma play out alongside a mystery that involves senior citizens, a violent rainstorm, and even a sinister religious cult of some kind. The runtime is 90 minutes, so it’s a fairly quick watch.

Continue reading our A Mother’s Embrace movie review below. Find it on Screambox on September 16, 2025.

Cosmic horror from Brazil

A Mother’s Embrace plays out primarily in 1996, where we follow a young firefighter, Ana (Marjorie Estiano). Almost as soon as we meet her in 1990s Rio de Janeiro, we recognize that she was the girl from the story in the opening of the movie.

In that story, we’re back in the 1970s, where a girl and her mother are seemingly enjoying a nice night at a fun fair together. However, it will soon end on a very dark note that I won’t reveal here.

Just know that this event will end up haunting our main character.

On the fateful night of 1996, when A Mother’s Embrace plays out, it’s the night of a storm that threatens to be the worst storm ever to hit Rio de Janeiro. The firefighters are called to an old people’s home because the building may collapse.

What happens next is a night of cosmic horror that hits harder the further into the night we get.

What is going on with these people?

While the firefighters do their best to help the elderly living in the old and very worn building, the owner of the building and the people working with the elderly are very strange.

To put it mildly.

It’s difficult to figure out why these people aren’t more interested in accepting help from the firefighters. Also, what is that creature lurking and slithering around the old people’s home?

Soon, we will all realize that something sinister is going on. Also, the residents may not be quite as innocent as they first appeared to be. Can our main protagonist, Ana, confront her own traumatic past to escape this weird place?

Watch A Mother’s Embrace on Screambox

The new Brazilian horror movie with the original title of Abraço de Mãe comes from director Cristian Ponce (History of the Occult). He also co-wrote the screenplay with André Pereira and Gabriela Capello.

A Mother’s Embrace has already been screened at film festivals worldwide. From Beyond Fest to the iconic genre film festival Sitges, and (of course) Festival do Rio. Now you can finally watch it as it releases on Screambox.

I’m not sure whether I would have preferred a more specific ending to this story, but I did enjoy this horror movie in all its cosmic strangeness.

A Mother’s Embrace is on Screambox from September 16, 2025.

Details

Director: Cristian Ponce
Writers: Gabriela Capello, André Pereira, Cristian Ponce
Cast: Marjorie Estiano, Chandelly Braz, Javier Drolas, Reynaldo Machado, Val Perré, Ângela Rabello, Helena Varvaki, Rafael Canedo, Thelmo Fernandes