It is an allegory, but of what exactly?

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 2017)

In mother!, directed by Darren Aronofsky, a couple, played brilliantly by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, live in an isolated house, far from distractions so as to allow him to finish his next poem. Meanwhile, she tends to their house, wanting to make it into a paradise, in her own words. But then strangers start appearing on their doorstep and things spiral out of control.
On a purely plot-level, the film juggles tropes and conventions found mainly in horror and drama genres. The imagery gets increasingly more gruesome, the unsettling feeling of having your home invaded is ever-present and the final third of the film ceases all attempts at subtlety, bombarding our senses with scenes so violent and out of the left field that you absolutely will leave the theater exhausted.
And if that was all, I'd probably hate this film. Because it would lack meaning. It would simply aim to shock, to maim your senses of propriety and value.
But the film is more than that. It shouldn't be seen as a straight and narrow story about a couple living through unexpected horrors. Rather it's a poem, an allegory about creation, about letting go and trusting your proverbial children to unknown masses. You need to think, who these two represent, what is the house, who are the strangers, why is he so accepting and why is she so guarded.
And when it clicks, when you can examine the film through its intended allegory, it becomes quite something else altogether.
mother! is not an easy film. And that is good. We need films like this to broaden our horizons. To break the borders of our thinking and force us to venture into paths not yet traveled.