1980s Mother’s Day Slasher Horror Dark Comedy Is A Sick Way To Celebrate
If you want to stay in your wife’s good graces on Mother’s Day, there’s one movie that you need to avoid: Mother’s Day. But since it’s that time of year, I figured I’d talk about this extremely problematic abduction and revenge film written and directed by Charles Kaufman, the brother of Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman.
While this movie is not for the faint of heart due to its graphic nature, it’s an effective satire intentionally made in poor taste if that’s the kind of thing you’re into.
A Dark And Twisted Slasher
Mother’s Day is a movie that will either make you sick to your stomach, sick with laughter, or both. The film leaves no stone unturned in its willingness to offend its audience, playing out like a cross between Deliverance and Porky’s. I can’t help but admire this kind of movie because, despite its problematic nature, there’s a certain level of audacity required to make a movie like this, and I always have respect for filmmakers who are brave enough to go for it without worrying about what critics think (they hated it).
Follows The Beats Of Most 80s Low-Budget Movies
The premise of Mother’s Day is simple and follows the beats found in other revenge slasher movies. Three women, Trina (Tiana Pierce), Abbey (Nancy Hendrickson), and Jackie (Deborah Luce), get abducted by two freaks named Ike (credited as Holden McGuire) and Addley (credited as Billy Ray McQuade) in the remote New Jersey backwoods during their annual “mystery weekend” trip that they have been going on every year since graduating college.
What starts as a pleasant outing involving roasting marshmallows and reminiscing about the good old days turns into an epic tale of survival when Ike and Addley abduct the three friends and bring them back to their mother’s house.
A Disturbing Mother’s Day
Ike and Addley are intellectually and emotionally stunted man-children who do everything their mother (credited as Rose Ross) says, and their obedience mirrors that of 5-year-olds who want to make their mamma proud. Mother’s Day extrapolates the brother’s willingness to please their mother to absurdity, and this movie will get under your skin because Mother’s twisted fantasies mostly involve torture. When Jackie is chosen as the first victim, Trina and Abbey are locked away in one of the bedrooms, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before they meet a similar fate.
Surprisingly Empowering
Knowing that they have to escape, Trina and Abbey use Ike and Addley’s stupidity to their advantage and come up with a plan to rescue Jackie, who’s now in critical condition. Ready to kill or be killed, Trina and Abbey reclaim their power and dignity, giving this movie a redeeming quality that I wasn’t expecting it to have. Having been through hell, Trina and Abbey’s efforts to survive the harrowing ordeal that has been forced upon them transform Mother’s Day from a movie about victims to a movie about survivors.
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REVIEW SCORE
I will be honest here and say that Mother’s Day is an incredibly difficult movie to watch. It’s an obvious satire, but you must work through a considerable amount of brutality before there’s anything remotely close to a satisfying payoff. You’ll enjoy this film if you’re willing to see it through and have a sick sense of humor. If not, I don’t know what to say except that I’m sorry for pointing out that you can stream it for free right now on Tubi.
