MOTHER’S DAY

RUNNING TIME

112 minutes

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 A demented mother (Rebecca De Mornay)  is called to help her three sons who have got themselves into a bit of a mess and have somehow broke into their old home and kidnapped the new residents and their friends.  All she wants is for the hostages to be co-operative, but when the tensions rise so does her temper and the last thing you want is to make Mother angry!

 The Hughes Verdict!

Lets get my main gripe about this film out of the room before I start?  Why called Mother’s Day?  I mean any avid horror fan will look at that title and think “here we go!” yet another horror film that follows in the “lets kill on a certain day!” horror cycle that we have seen over the years.  From this we have seen the likes of Halloween, Friday 13th, April Fool’s Day, and countless others, and I was expecting a kind of story which we saw a mother have her kids taken from her and because she could not suffer the pain of being alone on the day we celebrate for all  mothers, she goes psycho and kills everyone in her path. Hey that is not a bad idea for “slash” so any budding filmmakers reading this-if I see a film like that in the next two years, you know where to send the cheque.  Anyway the fact nothing like that this happens doing the film and also that its not even set on Mother’s Day makes me question “Who came up with this title?”

Mother’s Day is yet a new film to enter the torture porn genre even though its not as brutal as the many other films that have come out in recent years.  This is not like a Saw or a Hostel and I enjoyed this horror simply because we see the return of an actress who came to fore in the early nineties with a standout performance that earned her much love from horror fans.  Yes Rebecca De Mornay is back! and it feels as if she has never been away.

In 1994 Mornay stole the whole horror year with her performance as the Nanny Peyton Flanders in the critical acclaimed and blockbuster hit The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.   I remember the hype as a young lad and the film was a huge hit considering it was released doing the wave of similar films.  The 90’s was obsessed with normal people turning out to be psycho’s all started because Glen Close made some Rabbit soup and from there we saw deranged Stepfathers, cops, dentists, you name it we had it all and yet it was Mornay performance being the nanny from hell which is often remembered.  The film itself was ok, a bit tame for my tastes but she did excel in it and what should have took her on a path to instant stardom, somehow didn’t and she ended up making some pretty poor films with Guilty as Sin being one that stands out like a sore thumb.  The only film at the top of my head that I can stands out with her being in and was quite good was the straight to video hit Blind Side, but then the film was helped along by yet another psychotic turn from Rutger Hauer, always a good thing to watch in days gone by.

Mother’s Day is a return to form for the ice cold stare in which in some sort of strange bizarre way is played like a sequel to Rock The Cradle.  What I mean by that is this could easily be “what would have happened if the nanny won the day and stole the kids!” because she shows her once again that her love for her children is quite demented and she will go to any lengths to protect them, even if it means a bit of torture.

We start with three brothers, the most vicious bunch of bastards who have done a Reservoir Dog kind of bank robbery, in other words “botched” which leaves one of them shot in the stomach and virtually bleeding to death.  They find shelter in their nearby family home, a place they have not been for a while and when they break in and put their dying brother on the sofa, they are stunned to find the house is not like it was.  New furniture and different colour walls is a sign that mother has not told them that she has moved and before they can leg it, the new owner comes up from the basement – where the obvious party is taking place- and in panic the brothers take everyone hostage and an impossible situation as just become a heck of a lot worse!  The only way to get out of this situation is to phone “their mother” and soon Mornay is on the scene.

At first she plays it wonderfully.  Kind and concerned about the way her sons have treated the hostages, she tries her best to be warm and helpful but every horror fan will know that underneath the gentle smile is just a complete bitch ready to surface and as the tension rises so does her mask slip and Mother goes to show just who the brothers have taken their attitude and style from.

With director Darren Lynn Bousman in the chair, many fans will know what to expect from the man who helmed numerous Saw films but to be fair to Bousman he shows great restrain here and knows he does not need to fill the film full of pointless torture scenes.  The film actually does well grabbing the tension around you and it really does not let go because every fan will await the moment for when Mother loses it!  I really have not seen a performance this year in a horror film that rallies around such a performance and make no mistake, if the film had any other actress in the role apart from Mornay then this film would not be half as good!

There are a few really good scenes, one outside a cash-point which is devilishly evil, a brilliant gunshot at the head delighted my horror taste and we then quite possibly have one of the finest torture scenes of the year involving a boiling kettle which made me squirm in my very seat.  Mother’s Day is an enjoyable treat that is much better than the Troma original that this is loosely based on, its a perfect rental for a Saturday night and it perfectly fits into the category “of an easy watch!”- Not great but not awful either……..

                                                                  Rating:

Read Matt Wavish’s Cinema Review of Mother’s Day  rating:3/10