By now you must have realized I have the largest pile of
unwatched movie lying around in my room. Once again, with a nudge from a fellow
blogger, Kalyn over at Gore Galore, Mother’s Day was dug out of the box, and
put on the screen. Even as I was throwing it on, I had my doubt about the
remake, but within minutes I was gripped, and strapped into a ride that wasn’t
going to let me go.
Now Mother’s Day had an interesting “bar” set for it. It is
a remake of a TROMA original and well the TROMA name is synonymous with a very
particular style, of over the top, extra violent and gory movies. Mother’s Day is not a remake of that style,
while it may steal some story elements, it is holey its own movie, and a damn
fine one at that. As Kalyn put it, it is easily could I possibly say the best
home invasion movie put out in the last couple years, keep in mind I haven’t seen
You’re Next yet. Either way Mother’s Day pacts a powerful punch, a hell of a
lot of thrills, more than enough violence and terror, and some original
thinking. That is one hell of a combo.
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| Oh look, Mother's here. |
Mother’s Day starts out like many a home invasion movie. It
is not some random psychopaths who just want to fuck with your head, a la The
Strangers, (record for most movies mentioned in one post!), it is about a trio
of brother who are on the run who show up at their mother’s house.
Unfortunately, she has been foreclosed on and no longer lives in the house. Bad
news for the new homeowners, who of course, may not be as happy as they seem. They
did seem happy didn’t they, I feel like maybe they didn’t. Anyways, the first thing that surprises me is
that it is not just the new homeowners in the house. They are having quite the
party in the basement.
I honestly can’t think of to many home invasion movies in
which nine people are taken captive. I mean, considering there is only three
brothers, one seriously wounded and not helping anyone anytime soon, nine
people is a lot to manage, regardless of how oblivious they are in the
basement. Of course, they don’t stay oblivious for long, and soon we have quite
the different party on our hands. Of course, it will be all good though,
because the boys have called mother, and she quickly shows up to put things to
rest. No disrespect to the rest of the cast, but Rebecca De Mornay makes this
movie. She plays the mother phenomenally, and without her, the movie would have
been knocked down a peg or two.
Without the internet handy I can’t look up the rest of the
cast, although I vaguely recognize almost all of them. Not exactly Hollywood
walk of fame stars, but they’ve been in some bigger budget things. Watching the
credits, I couldn’t place their names either, but one of them is Iceman I
remember now. The black guy (not racist, but he is the only African-American male) is also a pretty big actor. The
red-head, who is sexy as hell, does a
good job, along with the other three girlfriends/fiancés/etc. What was the
heroines name again? Starts with a B and is on the tip of my tongue. Whatever
it is she did a great job as well, although I didn’t recognize her. There is
also Ike, as well as the sister who is from True Blood. Damn it, without the
internet I am helpless with actor or character names. Either way, one name should get you to watch
this. Rebecca De Mornay.
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| If there is one thing trying to find screenshots taught me, it was that this movie has no wide or deep shots. Everything is quick flashes and close-ups or else scrolling shots. Nothing ever appears completely on the screen at one time. |
Back to the plot and why I enjoyed it so much. With nine
people against five in a fight for their lives, we know they aren’t just going to take it. However it is the criminals
response when they try to fight back that is so... shall we say great? Ike sums
it up nicely “Human Nature”. Starting with the knife fight, and then following
through to a number of powerful scenes, our villains show that anyone is
willing to plunge a knife into their closest friends chest if it is a choice
between them or you. Don’t hold your head up and think you would be above that.
Only the strongest of us wouldn’t pick up that knife. Whatever you think you
might do, that element of survival of the fittest, and everyone for themselves,
in what usually becomes quite the team building exercise, (yes I just called
being captive of a home invasion a team building exercise), was probably my
favourite part.
There were a couple of twists as well. From the opening
scene, I could deduce that Mother’s family wasn’t exactly hers, but when that
scene came full circle at the end, it was quite good. I’ll admit I saw that coming
a bit earlier, but still, good to have a few surprises.
Overall, Mother’s Day was actually a much stronger and
better movie than I thought it was going in. It isn’t anything like the
original TROMA movie, but it shouldn’t and by no means has to be. It is its own
movie and it does it exceedingly well. As I was saying with the second bit, no
matter the movie I watch, I always feel it was amazing just after I watched it.
Hopefully like, Kalyn’s review did for me, my review will make you try this out
and hopefully it will surprise you to. I also have to go check out the review
of this over at Cinematic Shocks, and I’ll link both below. If you watch it and
want to come argue with me about what you would have done in that knife fight,
feel free to comment.
Link:
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