Mother's Day (1980)

Director:

Charles Kaufman

Writers:

Charles Kaufman (writer)
Warren Leight (writer)

Release Date:

September 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

If you go down to the woods today.

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Reunion | Murder | Rape | Female Psychopath | Hatred

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

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

Runtime:

90 min | Australia:98 min | Germany:76 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (TV rating) | Australia:(Banned) (1985 re-rating) | Australia:R (original rating) | West Germany:18 (heavily cut) | Germany:Not Rated (uncut) | Netherlands:16 | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | Finland:K-18 | Portugal:M/18 | UK:R | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Connecticut, USA

Company:

Duty Productions

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.

Goofs:

Continuity: Abbey's gag goes from being in between her teeth to over her mouth.

Quotes:

Abbey: Outside the United States they don't have marshmallows.
Jackie: Then it's like the only really American food. Wow!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Remake (2006)

Soundtrack:

I think we're alone now

Top of the Trash-World, Ma!

"Mother's Day" is sick, silly and inane and yet it definitely is the greatest thing Troma Productions ever brought forward! There's quite a big crowd of fans that consider "Mother's Day" to be a pure genre classic, and even though I'm not that enthusiast about it, I really think it's an amusing mixture of grotesque splatter, eerie suspense and effective social satire. For their annual university reunion weekend, three girl friends go camping near the lake of Deep Baron's; just a couple of hours outside New Jersey. The area is deserted, apart from one cabin where a totally deranged elderly lady raised her middle-aged two sons to be perverted maniacs, skilled in torturing people and protecting their mommy from possible intruders. The girls are captured and serve as sleaze-toys for the two sickos. Poor Jackie doesn't survive the first night and when the other two manage to escape, they swear to avenge their departed college sister. The cool thing about "Mother's Day" is that it successfully blends two very popular contemporary horror sub genres at once! Two thirds of the film are like a typical hillbilly backwoods slasher in the trend of "Deliverance" and "Just Before Dawn" whereas the finale is genuine revenge/vigilante exploitation, like "Last House on the Left" and "I spit on your Grave". This is most likely the only Troma film that pays attention to atmosphere and set pieces! Even some of the violence is kept off screen to increase the disturbance factor, and that surely isn't producer's Lloyd Kaufman's usual style. Still, most of the dialogues are extremely poor and some of the gags and references towards other cinema classic are painfully lame. The end-sequence, on the other hand, is terrific and left room for a sequel that unfortunately never came.. If you only watch ONE Troma movie in your life, make sure it's either this one or "Bloodsucking Freaks".