mothersday

Although the fact is largely overlooked , Mother's Day, along with Halloween , and Friday the 13th, played a huge part in kickstarting the whole U.S. slasher genre. Directed by Charles Kaufman ( brother of Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman) , it's a highly intelligent and misunderstood commentary about the effect of television and pop-culture in general on society.

The movie starts out with a little old lady known only as 'Mother' attending a self improvement seminar she found out about on t.v. At the end of the seminar , she offers a ride to a couple of shifty looking beatniks on their way to a bus stop near her cottage in the backwoods of New Jersey. The two dirty looking hippies apparently want to do the old lady in and steal her car, but the plan hits a hurdle when the car stalls.

The old ladies sons Ike and Addley leap from the bushes decapitating one hippy , and dragging his girlfriend out of the car and having their way with her before punching about fifty new breathing holes in her with a hunting knife before you can say "Woodstock". Mother sits there watching the whole show , and feeling nothing but pride.

Mother and the boys live in a filthy looking cottage in the woods , filled with pop-culture items such as Big Bird alarm clocks , and a t.v. in every room. The family has learned everything they know about the world around them from the tube , and are so obsessed with television that they force unwitting victims they capture to take part in bizarre plays that invariably end in violence and mayhem.

One day they capture three girls who are on their yearly camping trip. After torturing and raping the girls all night , and killing one of them , the other two escape. They try to find the cops , only to find that Ike is the cops. This leaves them no alternative but to return to their campsite , find whatever weapons they can , and return to Mothers house to give her and the boys a taste of what a real Jerry Springer-style brawl might be like.

Mother's Day is a lot more intelligent and entertaining than your average slasher flick. Rose Ross (who'd done a lot of theater in New York) was great as the maniacal mother. Holden McGuire was also pretty entertaining as the slack jawed yokel Ike , complete with flying hat and Billy Bob Thornton teeth. Billy Ray McQuade was about the only castmember who gave an uneven performance. At times he was convincing , but often seemed like he'd feel more at home in a sitcom. Still , he can do one armed push-ups , so he earns fitness points at least.

This movie suffered the same kind of witchburning by critics as Bloodsucking Freaks. It has a lot of intelligent things to say , but most critics are too shallow and just plain dumb to see anything past the graphic gore and nudity, which is why inanely stupid movies like Gladiator keep winning Oscars. Ike and Addley are the ultimate product of mass media. In todays society , where children are learning values from the likes of Oprah , Dawsons Creek, and Jerry Springer , not to mention countless teen and fashion magazines, it's no wonder family values are crumbling at their foundations and crime is on the rise. Critics may condemn a movie like Mother's Day , and claim that it rots the brain, but at the end of the day a decapitation or death by drano is far less damaging to society than promoting the cast of Friends as role models.