‘Mother’s Day’ (1980) is a Brutal and Mean-Spirited Revenge Horror
Mother’s Day is a nasty affair that serves up schlock, intensity, pitch-black comedy, and brutal kills. Additionally, it’s a perfect seasonal selection for this very time of year. With the Mother’s Day holiday being observed on Sunday, this 1980 Troma effort is sure to remind you that no matter how passive-aggressive your mother may be, it could always be worse.
The film follows three college friends who reunite once a year for a mystery trip. This year, Jackie (Deborah Luce) has plans to take her pals Trina (Tiana Pierce) and Abbey (Nancy Hendrickson) on a weekend getaway to the New Jersey wilderness. Their trip begins pleasantly enough and sees the ladies reminiscing about the good old days and sleeping under the stars. But it’s not long before they find themselves abducted by backwoods creepers Ike (Gary Pollard) and Addley (Michael McCleery). The ladies quickly learn that their captors have a penchant for violence and a burning urge to please their overbearing mother.
A big piece of what makes Mother’s Day effective is the menacing nature of its antagonists. All three of them are quite nasty and each appears completely detached from reality. Ike and Addley’s appetite for violent mayhem is only outweighed by their devotion to their sadistic matriarch.
Mother is just as vicious as her boys. She leaves most of the physical violence to Addley and Ike, as she is content to watch their handiwork and serve as a referee of sorts. But she is still very much an active participant. In fact, nearly everything the boys do is in the service of pleasing their mercurial mother.
Mother is especially frightening to watch because of the way she so effortlessly weaponizes her children’s desire for approval. Her passive-aggressive nature is very likely to feel familiar to anyone that grew up with an impossible-to-please matriarch. Though the villains are larger than life and occasionally feel like caricatures, there is a certain amount of relatability to their broken family dynamic. The notion that there’s something even slightly familiar about their dysfunction makes the three of them all the more frightening as antagonists.
As for the central trio of friends, they have a believable camaraderie. The way they ride or die for one another and band together when one of the ladies is in trouble inspires a level of investment in their fate. Their college hijinks remind me of my collegiate days and the antics my pals and I got up to. That distinction makes the ladies almost immediately relatable.
The three leads affectionately refer to themselves as “The Rat Pack”. Getting a few brief glimpses into their shared history makes it all the more harrowing to watch the aftermath of their abduction. Two of the women are bound and gagged and forced to look on as one of their own is subjected to various forms of physical and emotional abuse. One gets the impression that their friendship has long existed as a safe space and an escape from their busy lives. So, seeing that bond violated by a maniacal matriarch and her unhinged offspring is genuinely upsetting.
After watching the ladies subjected to various forms of torment, the inevitable turning of the tables feels quite justified. It’s satisfying to see the women fighting back and wreaking havoc upon their sadistic captors. It’s made clear that the revenge spree is fueled by the desire to claim retribution for a fallen comrade. And that makes the proceedings feel warranted. Some pictures of this ilk end up coming across as unduly mean-spirited when the retribution sequence unfolds. But that’s never the case here. Mother’s Day features plenty of mean-spirited energy. But with very likable leading ladies and truly reprehensible antagonists, the revenge piece feels supported by that which came before it.
The manner in which the villainous rednecks are dispatched makes the proceedings all the more fun to watch. There’s a television set to the head sequence that really hits the spot for me. There’s also a brutal genital mutilation sequence that sees the women reclaiming their power after one of them is sexually assaulted by their captors. Overall, the sendoffs are quite gnarly but they are a lot of fun to witness.
Though Mother’s Day was made relatively cheaply, it makes the most of its modest budget. Co-writer and director Charles Kaufman does a lot with a little here and succeeds in delivering some pretty brutal effects sequences and lots of campy, dark comedy.
All in, Mother’s Day is a thrilling effort with likable protagonists and a brutal denouement.
If you’re curious to experience the film for yourself, Mother’s Day is streaming on Tubi, Plex, and Shudder, as of the publication of this post.
Categorized:Editorials
