Mother’s Day – Review (Fantastic Fest)

Now that every suit in Hollywood has boarded the remake train, there is a steady flow of unoriginal material surfacing on theatre screens everywhere. Most of them are nothing more than shells of the original that miss the mark by miles, but every now and again a remake, or re-imagining as some like to call them, kick as much ass, if not more than the original. Darren Lynn Bousman’s take on the classic horror flick Mother’s Day is one of these. It not only does justice to the source material it takes it into new territory and in some ways trumps it.

The story doesn’t waste any time getting to down to the nitty gritty. Beth (Jamie King) and her husband Daniel (Frank Grillo) are a couple dealing with the recent death of their only child, and a crumbling marriage. They have friends over for drinks while a raging tornado is threatening to unleash all sorts of hell on their neighborhood. Only the tornado is the least of their worries, because the Koffin family, consiting of Ike (Patrick Flueger’), Addley (Warren Kole), Johnny (Matt O’Leary), Lydia (Deborah Ann Woll), and of course Mother (Rebecca De Mornay) have made their way back to their former home, now belonging to Beth and Frank. One of the Koffin boys, Johnny has been shot and the family has decided to lay low, tend to his wounds, torment the occupants, and gather up as much money as possible before heading for the border. That’s the plot in a nutshell.

When I first laid eyes on the pretty cast members I thought for a second that I might be in for another cookie cutter horror time waster, but these characters unleash an amount of carnage on the occupants of their former home that at times make it difficult to keep your eyes on the screen. All of the actors are phenomenal, especially De Mornay, who excited me every time she opened her mouth. It’s too bad the Oscars are such a sham because De Mornay deserves more than just a nomination for her portrayal of Mother.

Fans of weak-tit horror movies should avoid this movie because for once the horror community has been given they type of flick they deserve; a hateful movie that pulls no punches, goes right for the jugular, and kicks it’s audiences’ ass into submission. Darren Lynn Bousman is a director that not only knows how to craft a great horror film, he grows with each film, and after watching Mother’s Day he’s climbed his way up to my top 10 directors to watch list (and I’m not just saying that because he likes my balls). Mother’s Day is positively a killer film.

Rating:

Donny Broussard

I enjoy the types of films that used to dominate late night television in the '80s, spending time with my family, filmmaking, photography, Rubik's Cubes, Diet Pepsi, building old Shogun Warriors model kits, Canon cameras, comic books, AOR, coconut ice cream, mac & cheese, cold pizza, popcorn, nachos, UL Football tailgating, film festivals, reading, Barry Manilow (don't ask), films with both Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in them, Alf, Pac Man, 1979 Trans AMs, beer, Godzilla, Hooters (both the restaurant and ones girls like to keep hidden), and Bigfoot (he's real). I'm just saying.

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