- remake of a Troma movie, what
could go wrong?
I don't usually check out a lot of
horror flicks that dive deep into torture or gore for the sake of it
but given that it was just Mother's Day, I figured the title was
fitting and I'd give it a whirl. The original movie “Mother's Day”
is a Troma Entertainment movie made some 30 years ago by the main
driving power, Lloyd Kaufman. Troma films are known for
roughly only two things, the worst acting you've ever seen and far
beyond the tolerable in amounts of disgusting imagery. They are
single -handedly the reason movies like the Saw franchise were made,
the only difference being that the Saw franchise has financial
backing into its creation, promotion and distribution. This review is
not going to do a comparison of the old and new version. I haven't
seen the original (though I've heard they are really quite different)
and as I'm sure you have gathered I have no real desire to do so.
I'll be sticking strictly to the new one.
The movie doesn't take long to throw
senseless bloody guts at you. After a baby is kidnapped from the
worst security in a hospital ever (seriously where in the world is
everyone? Was it abandoned?) there is a bloody death and we're thrown
into a home invasion. This is where the main portion of the almost
two hour movie takes place and trust me, you are going to feel that
time go by, second by second. The story has almost no surprises. You
can easily tell who isn't going to make it long before they are
killed. The killers are superhuman, taking more of a beating than a
dead horse joke, while the innocents are feeble, weak-minded, simple
to manipulate and generally dumb as bricks save for one person who
exclaims after some of their friends have been killed (in front of
them), “Some of us just aren't going to make it.” You don't say,
stereotypical sassy lady of colour?
I brought up the Saw series for a very
particular reason, not just because they share the common link of
what a person will do to live and because there are some strong
ideological similarities between the two, but because they share the
same director (Darren Lynn Bousman – Saw II-IV). It's probably
safe to say when it comes to horror he likes his one trick, because I
felt throughout the entire movie that I was watching a starter flick
into the Saw series. I'd like to elaborate on that for humour's sake.
Lets say you have not seen a Saw movie and you're also the type to
be on the fence about going to see such a movie. Perhaps abandoned
warehouses and industrial rooms with bleak interior weren't your
thing, to say nothing about the torture. You know you're into that.
Quite the sticky wicket you're in, no? With a nicely furnished house
with a side of dry cleaning building and a few driving sequences and
only quick decisions of human survival and torture the remake of
Mother's Day might just be your thing.
 |
| You can hardly tell a woman is hiding. So sneaky! |
Mother's Day has no big Hollywood
stars, a few stars that Bousman has worked with before. None of the
acting is quite as bad as the few Troma flicks I've suffered through,
hell it isn't even has bad as those SyFy movies of the week that
truly are abominations (but are sorta fun to watch if you don't take
seriously and just drink while watching with a group of friends).
Jamie King plays Beth Sohapi, and Rebecca De Mornay is cast as Mother
along with Patrick John Flueger as Ike, and these three were the
strongest actors in the movie. The scenes that are the best, also
contain the most hints of human survival/instinct - the Beth/Ike
scene is good. You should also remember that after it's mentioned it
is basically forgotten because Ike is all over human nature and
survival, but he really throws his attraction to all that away.
Every other character else is pretty damn generic and stereotypical
and their demises just don't come soon enough.
I didn't actually think the gore went
too far even though I expected it would. The first kill should give
you a feeling for the rest of it. There is some human burning but
it's mostly talk and no real damage. The stabbing and shooting is
mostly just candy apple red surrounding a hole, so in a way it was
actually worse as I had expected some serious realism and torture.
Now don't get me wrong, it is still a flick with torture and gore.
It's never about getting rid of someone, it's always to see them
squirm. I was extremely conflicted throughout this film if I was
interested in what would happen and could everyone just die right now
and the credits happen to be 40 minutes long. This is the first
movie I really took some time to rate but everything it tries (story,
gore, torture, acting) really does fail to be what fans of any one of
those things want.
I'm throwing it a bone 3/10
PS: If they made a Mother's Day 2, I'd
watch it just to see if they explained the loose ends.
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