TORONTO - Genre-pushing director Darren Aronofsky says it's impossible to spoil the experience of his latest psychological thriller “mother!”, which he calls “really weird and different.”

The movie hits the Toronto International Film Festival after confounding and dividing critics at the Venice Film Festival.

It stars Jennifer Lawrence as a young pregnant woman and Javier Bardem as her older, poet husband.

Their love is tested when strangers arrive at their home.

Lawrence told a festival press conference that it would help to know that the story is an allegory about Mother Earth.

She says that even she was mystified by elements in the tale.