Mother’s Day (1980) United Film Distribution Company/Horror RT: 90 minutes No MPAA Rating (language, extreme graphic violence and gore, torture, rape, nudity, sexual content, alcohol and drug use, general sleaziness) Director: Charles Kaufman Screenplay: Charles Kaufman and Warren Leight Music: Phil Gallo and Clem Vicari Jr. Cinematography: Joseph Mangine Release date: September 12, 1980 (US) Starring: Nancy Hendrickson, Deborah Luce, Tiana Pierce, Holden McGuire, Billy Ray McQuade, Rose Ross. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *** ½
Talk about warped horror movies, Mother’s Day belongs in either a museum or mental institution. This is one seriously f***ed up movie and I mean that in a good way. On the surface, it’s straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre School of Filmmaking. It’s not just a gory horror movie; it’s also a sick comedy about a family that makes the Mansons look like the Bradys. Right at the center of it all is the titular mother (Ross), a demented old lady with two depraved, mentally defective sons, Ike (McGuire) and Addley (McQuade). She takes great pride in her boys, especially when they kidnap and torture victims for her personal amusement.
We first meet Mother at an EST-like encounter group seminar where she offers a hippie couple a ride to the bus stop. They appear to be planning on hurting her, but the joke’s on them. When car trouble causes her to pull over, one of her sons decapitates the man while the other savagely beats the woman. Then Mom gets into the act, finishing off the girl with a garrote. Well, you know what they say about a family that plays together.
Next, we meet the three victims… er, main characters- Trina (Pierce), Jackie (Luce) and Abbey (Hendrickson). Although life has taken them in different directions since college, they still get together every year for a reunion weekend trip. This year, Jackie has arranged a camping trip deep in the woods far from civilization and civilized people. As is typical in movies like this, they completely ignore the sign that reads “Proceed at your own risk”. It starts out idyllically enough with the girls fishing, hiking and reminiscing while smoking pot. That’s when their nightmare begins.
Predictably, Ike and Addley show up and drag the screaming girls (in their sleeping bags) back to the filthy, broken-down shack they share with their mother. They proceed to entertain the disturbed old lady forcing the girls to take part in rape scenarios of her choosing. After a while, the girls manage to escape, but one of them succumbs to her injuries. Her two friends turn the table on their attackers and return to the shack to take bloody vengeance.
This is when Mother’s Day brings on the gore. The girls dispatch their tormentors in creative ways. We get to bear witness to it all. We see a hatchet delivered to the groin, a can of drain cleaner poured down a throat, a TV smashed over the head and a carving with an electric knife. WOW! What a bloody mess! Then they get to Mom. It makes perfect sense for Abbey to take the wheel for this one. Back home in Chicago, she lives with her demanding mother, a harpy always screaming at her from her bedroom, repeatedly reminding her “I’m a sick woman!”
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Mother is extremely afraid of her dead (?) sister Queenie. Supposedly, she lives in the woods and wants to kill her first chance she gets. Mom claims she broke her neck when she was a baby. Okay, this explains the neck brace she’s always wearing. The problem is NOBODY other than her has ever seen Queenie. What are the chances she’ll make a surprise appearance in the final scene?
I remember seeing the commercial for Mother’s Day when I was 12. It was the first time I ever saw a televised advertisement for a movie carrying a “No One Under 17 Admitted” label instead of an MPAA rating. The newspaper ad showed Mom holding a gift box with a severed head in it. Of course, I was intrigued. I would have given anything to see it. That didn’t happen until I got my first VCR in December ’84. It was one of the first movies I rented.
Directed by Charles Kaufman, Mother’s Day is a sleazy Hixploitation movie that continues the grand tradition of depicting hillbillies as stupid, sex-crazed, possibly inbred, homicidal maniacs. Ike and Addley are like a sadistic, backwoods version of Lenny and Squiggy. When they’re not terrorizing young women, they trade insults over their different musical tastes. A typical exchange consists of “Punk sucks.” (Addley) and “Disco’s stupid.” (Ike). Meals involve Ike eating cereal from a metal bucket while Addley shoots a can of pressurized cheese spread into his mouth. Then there’s their home décor. It looks like it was inspired by Better Homes and Junkyards. Graffiti covers the walls, the living room is filled with old TVs and the trash-filled kitchen is a health hazard.
While I classify Mother’s Day as a horror movie, it might be more accurate to call it a splatter comedy. The first victim, the guy who gets headed, is obviously a dummy. Nobody sits that still when a machete is coming at their neck. The bad acting and inane dialogue enhance the sleazy, darkly funny tone. McGuire and McQuade are especially hysterical. Ross is great as the looniest mother this side of Mommie Dearest. The three actresses playing the victims are attractive, but their characters are so dumb. Take Trina. She works in the film industry in California. She must watch a lot of movies. Has she never seen a horror movie? She should know it’s NEVER a good idea for three young women to go camping in the woods alone. It’s common freaking sense! On the other hand, if we didn’t have idiots, we wouldn’t have slasher movies.
Although the best of it doesn’t come until the end, Mother’s Day has pretty good splatter effects. They mix very well with the vile, flagitious behavior exhibited by the sick, perverted characters. Some will, no doubt, find it offensive. That it is! It’s also entertaining in a Grand Guignol kind of way. It’s a bloody good time if you have a strong stomach. It’s definitely superior to the tamer, more conventional remake starring Rebecca DeMornay. Don’t even bother with it. Mother’s Day can be imitated, but never duplicated. It’s a strange, surreal, original experience.
