AGB: I really don't appreciate the suggestion that there's absolutely nothing to this movie because of its obviousness. I also don't understand how you're "surprised anyone takes this seriously. I'm surprised anyone here is thinking deeply about this film," which you say just after calling it "a silly, campy, dumb horror movie" as if those aren't analyzed and written about over and over again. I've seen plenty of smart film people writing intelligent things about this movie. Heck, the podcast whose forum we're on had positive things to say about it and filled a 20 minute review without even talking much about the back half of the film. I suggest you investigate your own incredulity, or at least show a little tact when disparaging the movie and the people who enjoyed it. It is rarely a useful position to take, and even more rarely a useful one to express.
DH: I thank you, and I appreciate your review as well. I think the horror movie for introverts angle works quite well. That's often a part of the paranoia horror I wrote about, and it always freaks me out pretty well. I guess it's also part of the home invasion thing, but this feels a little more intense for how isolated they are at the film's start and how innocuously the invasions begin. It's interesting that you see some of the devil, or at least demons, in this film. I don't find them anywhere. I've read people interpreting Mother as the fallen angel. I don't see where that goes, exactly, especially once the baby comes into the picture. I find it interesting how none of us particularly went for the environmental stuff, even when that's what Aronofsky and Lawrence explicitly state is the "point" of the movie. I think it works, even with the biblical stuff, because the metaphor is still about neglect and abuse that by all rights should be abhorrent to the religio(n)(ous) but is instead a central part of it. You can see the two brothers fighting as the first despoiling of the natural world. It's all there, it all works.
aewade90: You've convinced me that your reading really works. I don't see it that way myself, but I think you're right that if you do see the film as a response to the response to Noah it becomes deeply troubling. We'll have to wait to see if this was just an outburst or if this'll be a turning point in Aronofsky's career. As much as I like mother!, I want to see him go in another direction next.