Directed by Marielle Heller, the new film Nightbitch stars Amy Adams as a stay-at-home mother who’s losing her dang mind. After giving up a fulfilling (though not necessarily lucrative) career as an artist, she now focuses fulltime on her husband and young son. “Mother” (Adams), as she’s called in the story because her identity, including her name, has completely faded away, has lost her sense of self along with her grip on reality. Based on Rachel Yoder’s novel of the same name, Nightbitch uses metaphor to dig deep into the female psyche to expose the animalistic nature of being a mother. In this case, the metaphor is a mother who transforms into a dog. 

Movies about humans becoming canine aren’t new. There’s a long history of werewolf films including a whole string of them in the 1980s: The Howling (1981), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Wolfen (1981), The Night of the Werewolf (1981), The Company of Wolves (1984), Silver Bullet (1985), Teen Wolf (1985), and Night Shadow (1989). (Not sure why this one decade needed so many werewolf movies, perhaps it has something to do with societal changes, but that’s the subject for another article).  

Typically, the transformation of a human into a werewolf is symbolic of our primal instincts getting the best of us, our repressed desires coming to the surface, and the way civilized human behavior rightfully clashes with our animalistic impulses. But Mother doesn’t turn into a wolf, she turns into a dog. Why? It allows the story to take a much more domestic turn and bends the metaphor into something more relatable to suburban family life. Also, if she became a wolf, the audience would worry for the safety of her son. Let’s delve into three clever ways Nightbitch uses the dog metaphor in the film. 

Body Transformation 

During pregnancy and after childbirth, moms often feel like their bodies have changed in profound, even unexpected ways. Weight is gained, hips widen and breasts become utilitarian feeding machines. But there are less obvious changes too. Unusual food cravings, hair grows or falls out, hormonal changes can cause mood swings, and there are changes in skin, including acne, itching and pigmentation.

In Nightbitch, Mother experiences most of these things but instead of attributing them to motherhood, her mind is in such a state that she believes she is transforming into a dog. Her sense of smell becomes acute, she grows six extra nipples, a puss-filled lump on her tailbone reveals a hairy tail. She also experiences an intense craving for raw meat. This physical transformation becomes a metaphor for not having control over one’s own body and intensifies Mother’s feelings of frustration, awkwardness and isolation. Over the course of the film, Mother must decide to stop fighting the transformation and accept it. 

The Benefits of Being a Dog

With a husband (called “Husband,” played by Scoot McNairy), who travels several days a week for work, Mother spends long days and nights alone with her sleep-challenged toddler, appropriately called “Son.” Mother longs for the life she had before having the baby, but soon leans into her shocking new canine instincts when she discovers they are helping her mother her son. 

A group of neighborhood dogs at the park recognize Mother as one of their kin and begin to play with her and Son. Dogs and humans are both animals that thrive on physical activity. The exercise, play, and bonding are something both Mother and Son need to help prevent physical and mental issues. Before long, they all run through the park with wild abandon.

Mother gets a dog bed for her boy who loves to crawl into it and go right to sleep. Mother and Son begin eating out of dog bowls which Husband isn’t happy about, but it’s a way that Mother and Son horse around and make mealtime fun. 

Socially, Mother isn’t able to connect with her art school friends because she can no longer relate to them. Mother also feels out of place around other moms at the Books and Babies club, feeling like they have nothing in common other than having a kid. But dogs are a highly social species and thrive in groups of other dogs. As Mother becomes more and more canine, she’s finally able to connect with the group of moms. Instead of shunning them, she chooses to spend time with them creating a social circle that provides her emotional support the way a pack of dogs would provide a sense of safety and wellbeing to an individual dog. 

Animal Instinct

While the metaphor of a mom transforming into a dog becomes a bit on the nose at times in the film, like when Mother is with her art school friends and she begins literally barking at the dinner table of a fine restaurant, it’s crucial for Mother to unearth her primal, fierce and animalistic instincts to be a good parent. 

As an artist, Mother spent much of her life in her head, thinking symbolically about images and creating art that would evoke emotions. It’s all very cerebral and intellectual. When Mother is deprived of this analytical work to focus on her baby, she doesn’t know how to function. But a dog doesn’t get stuck in its head. A mother dog knows instinctively how to rear her puppies and by connecting with her animal side, she becomes a much better mother and soon learns what she needs for herself: some temporary space from her husband and time to create art again. 

Mother creates an art show inspired by embracing her animal instincts and now she can intellectually understand the physical demands of motherhood and not fear them. 

Overall, the film Nightbitch is a brutal yet honest look at motherhood that resonates with modern women. Deftly switching from dark humor to emotionally painful moments, Marielle Heller’s script straddles the line between fantasy and reality that sets up the film to be an icon in the “Messy Woman” genre. A mom herself, Amy Adams gives a fearless performance that will likely earn her many accolades this awards season. 

Nightbitch is a taut 99 minutes long and is now in theaters.