Mother's Day (1980)

When you go into the woods today, you're in for a big surprise. When you go into the woods today you're not going to believe your eyes. But it ain't no "teddy bear picnic". Three girls ... See full summary »

Director:

Charles Kaufman

Writers:

Charles Kaufman, Warren Leight

Stars:

Nancy Hendrickson, Deborah Luce, Tiana Pierce

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nancy Hendrickson	...	Abbey
Deborah Luce	...	Jackie
Tiana Pierce	...	Trina
Frederick Coffin	...	Ike (as Holden McGuire)
Michael McCleery	...	Addley (as Billy Ray McQuade)
Beatrice Pons	...	Mother (as Rose Ross)
Robert Collins	...	Ernie
Peter Fox	...	The 'Dobber' (as Karl Sandys)
Marsella Davidson	...	Terry
Kevin Lowe	...	Ted
Scott Lucas	...	Storekeeper
Ed Battle	...	Doorman
Robert Carnegie	...	Tex
Silas Davis
Stanley Kaufman	...	Older man at Pool Party

Storyline

When you go into the woods today, you're in for a big surprise. When you go into the woods today you're not going to believe your eyes. But it ain't no "teddy bear picnic". Three girls discover that two men are willing to do anything to impress Mother and what impresses Mother is watching her son commit acts of rape and murder. Now these women are prisoners and lowered to pawns in the game of checkers between two dim wits and their Maniac Mommy and the question becomes, can any of them escape, alive?

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Plot Keywords:

reunion | murder | rape | maniac | marijuana | 

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Taglines:

I'm so proud of my boys. They never forget their momma.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Troma

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

September 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dia das Mães Macabro

Filming Locations:

Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Duty Productions, Saga Films, Troma Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 76 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the director's commentary, Charles Kaufman said that while shooting a scene Billy Ray McQuade (Addley) was so hung-over from drinking the night before that he threw up on Rose Ross (Mother). Naturally, shooting the scene had to be postponed.

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Goofs

When the girls are kidnapped and put in the sleeping bags, they are wearing night clothes as they were in bed. When the sleeping bags are re-opened in the house, however, they are now fully clothed (with one even wearing jewellery) with no explanation of how this happened.

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Quotes

Ike: I'm not dumb!
Addley: You're dumb, you like punk!

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Connections

Referenced in House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

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Soundtracks

"I think we're alone now"
by Tommy James & The Shondells

User Reviews

Early 80's cultural satire wrapped in a gory exploitative shell

I like this movie. When I was a teenager and I first saw it I loved it. Of course then I was enthralled with gore fests. This movie is definitely gory but when I was 13 the satirical vibe was somewhat lost on me. You see Mother moves her two "mama's boys" to the woods. Where she can take what is good from the city and leave the rest behind. What is "good" are all the things you see on TV from Fonzie to breakfest cereals. The house they live in is a marvel of production values. Two thirds of the budget alone had to have gone into decorating the house. It certainly didn't go into the Special effects. Such as the shoddy moment of blood spattering before decapitation occurs. As early 80's slice and dice goes this far outshines the typical camper in peril scenerio. We are introduced to the three main (victims) characters and we even get meaningful flashbacks in their lives. This makes it a little harder to take when they are brutalized. All in all Mother's Day ain't Life is Beautiful but why would you be that aisle of the video store unless you wanted to see some inbred choke on Drano.