Mother! has had the most divided reaction of any film this year

Audiences and critics simply can't decide whether Aronofsky's latest is an arthouse triumph or a befuddled mess

Love it or hate it, no one can stop talking about Darren Aronofsky's mother!

It's been the spark for many a furious argument ever since its initial premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it debuted to a hearty mixture of both cheers and boos and resulted in a fascinating mix of critical reviews - Guy Lodge hailed it as "spectacular" over at Vanity Fair, while Observer's Rex Reed named it "the worst movie of the century", though Rotten Tomatoes averaged it out at a 68% "fresh" rating.

The film reached its first screening under a tight veil of secrecy, scant on plot descriptions and with a smattering of enigmatic posters and trailers; written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, it stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple whose quaint existence is brutally interrupted by the arrival of uninvited guests.

However, its conflicted critical reception certainly didn't help clear things up for moviegoers, especially when the marketing for the film that did exist seemed to sell it heavily as a somewhat conventional horror - it's clear Paramount were trying to nab a wider audience than arthouse devotees here.

A move that's somewhat spectacularly backfired: it's become one of only a dozen or so movies to be branded with the dreaded F Cinemascore grade by US moviegoers, the most violently negative reaction any film can have. Which may say less about the film itself, and more about cinemagoers feeling deceived by the film's marketing, since the F-grade is shared by several weirdo horror films which were sold as something far more conventional, including William Friedkin's Bug and Richard Kelly's The Box.

Unfortunately what it's essentially resulted in is Paramount getting too big for their boots, attempting to open the film nationwide, as opposed to select theatres like Black Swan: its festival buzz projected the film to open at $11 million, but it only managed to secure a minute $7.5 million, making it the lowest open ever for a Jennifer Lawrence movie.

It's hard to tell what might have happened if Paramount had taken a different approach with mother! - whatever the case, Aronofsky's headtrip remains one of the most intriguing films of the year.

Mother! is out now.