Tilda Swinton brings an intensity to the big screen in every one of her films, but the psychological thriller “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” takes her to a new level.

She plays Eva Khatchadourian, a mother who agonizes over, and eventually comes to terms, with her son, who commits a heinous mass-murder at his school.

The movie is based on a critically acclaimed 2003 book by the same name by Lionel Shriver.

The British film first screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and drew critical raves, and may well be one of Swinton’s finest performances.

It will debut in the UK on Oct. 21, and is tentatively set for release in the United States this winter by Oscilloscope Laboratories. But no release date has apparently been set.

It would be a shame if the film doesn’t get screened in time for the Academy Awards.

Swinton’s performance is not only Oscar worthy, but so is co-star John C. Reilly’s. He plays Swinton’s tortured husband Franklin.

Swinton says the film plays off a mother’s fear that she has given birth to a monster.

“It’s everybody’s nightmare that, when they’re pregnant, they’re going to give birth to the devil. That when they bring up children, especially a boy, they’re going to give birth to this violence,” she says.

“What I find most intriguing about Eva is not that she gives birth to and raises this misanthropic and alienated, sociopathic child, and that it’s really foreign and outside of herself.

“The thing that’s really the nightmare is that she recognizes it only too well, because its hers, The misanthropy is hers. That violence is hers.”

Swinton is used to off-beat roles. She starred in 2007’s “Michael Clayton” with George Clooney and won the best supporting actress Oscar for the role

She also starred opposite Clooney in the 2008 Coen Brothers film, “Burn After Reading,” with John Malkovich.