"Murder in Law" is a tremendously entertaining straight-to-video horror/thriller that evoked a lot of laughs. Only... I'm not too sure the cast & crew likes to read so. All through the film, you get the inescapable impression that everyone involved in this production was dead-serious about it, and that they are also convinced they are part of a genuinely nail-biting & hair-rising suspense classic. This, of course, makes it even funnier!
It was the late-80s and, after a long decade full of slashers, movies about brute and masked men chasing teens through the woods weren't good enough anymore. In 1987, however, director Joseph Ruben came up with an intriguing variation on the traditional slasher formula. In "The Stepfather" the maniacal killer infiltrates into a family and commits his grisly kills from inside a warm and cozy nest. "Brilliant!" is also what writer/director Tony Jiti Gill must have thought when he saw it, and he promptly developed the idea to replace the stepfather character with a deranged old mother-in-law!
Marilyn Adams stars in the role of her life as Milly; the evil-gazing nightmare of a mother (-in-law). Not since Priscilla Alden in "Crazy Fat Ethel" I have witnessed such a devoted hag. Milly escapes from a mental institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Actually, she simply walks out of there as if the clinic was an open bar. One day later, Milly rings a doorbell somewhere in California and she's reunited with her beloved son Bill. Even though Bill hasn't seen mommy dearest in more than ten years and doesn't take the slightest effort to verify her story, he warmly welcomes her in the house, albeit much against the will of his - much less naïve - wife and teenage children. Evidently, the poor housecat is the first to disappear. Then the Latina housemaid. Well, what do you expect? Milly is stark-raving-mad!
What makes "Murder-in-Law" so amusing is the fact that Milly does more than killing a few people left and right. She carries around a massive suitcase, pulls the weirdest grimaces, parades around the house in clothes that are way too revealing for her age, throws her food at the maid, and truly sucks at pretending to be the poor & defenseless victim. The film is also stuffed with random and unintentionally hilarious elements. For example, the other patients at the asylum are as stereotypical as can be. They deliberately bang their heads against the walls and continuously shriek incomprehensible things. The ending is bizarre as well, since lead actor Joe Estevez simply goes out fishing and leaves it up to his wife and daughter to face the wrath of Milly. Maybe the production ran out of money and couldn't afford Estevez for the grand finale.
Poor Joe Estevez, by the way. I reckon his brother (Martin Sheen) and nephews (Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez) made quite some fun of him for starring in this.
It was the late-80s and, after a long decade full of slashers, movies about brute and masked men chasing teens through the woods weren't good enough anymore. In 1987, however, director Joseph Ruben came up with an intriguing variation on the traditional slasher formula. In "The Stepfather" the maniacal killer infiltrates into a family and commits his grisly kills from inside a warm and cozy nest. "Brilliant!" is also what writer/director Tony Jiti Gill must have thought when he saw it, and he promptly developed the idea to replace the stepfather character with a deranged old mother-in-law!
Marilyn Adams stars in the role of her life as Milly; the evil-gazing nightmare of a mother (-in-law). Not since Priscilla Alden in "Crazy Fat Ethel" I have witnessed such a devoted hag. Milly escapes from a mental institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Actually, she simply walks out of there as if the clinic was an open bar. One day later, Milly rings a doorbell somewhere in California and she's reunited with her beloved son Bill. Even though Bill hasn't seen mommy dearest in more than ten years and doesn't take the slightest effort to verify her story, he warmly welcomes her in the house, albeit much against the will of his - much less naïve - wife and teenage children. Evidently, the poor housecat is the first to disappear. Then the Latina housemaid. Well, what do you expect? Milly is stark-raving-mad!
What makes "Murder-in-Law" so amusing is the fact that Milly does more than killing a few people left and right. She carries around a massive suitcase, pulls the weirdest grimaces, parades around the house in clothes that are way too revealing for her age, throws her food at the maid, and truly sucks at pretending to be the poor & defenseless victim. The film is also stuffed with random and unintentionally hilarious elements. For example, the other patients at the asylum are as stereotypical as can be. They deliberately bang their heads against the walls and continuously shriek incomprehensible things. The ending is bizarre as well, since lead actor Joe Estevez simply goes out fishing and leaves it up to his wife and daughter to face the wrath of Milly. Maybe the production ran out of money and couldn't afford Estevez for the grand finale.
Poor Joe Estevez, by the way. I reckon his brother (Martin Sheen) and nephews (Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez) made quite some fun of him for starring in this.
