Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Mother's Day Blu-ray Movie Review

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be rapists and murderers and men-children (and Waylon Jennings thought Cowboys were bad?).

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 7, 2012

Please don't kill me!

It seems like there's always some controversy surrounding every holiday anymore, somebody angry that they do or do not get the day off from school or work, upset over decorations or what the day stands for, disgusted by the history or the cultural or religious implications behind the celebration, or finding some reason to become all hot and bothered and rain on someone else's parade. There's only really a handful of holidays that seem to annually escape much criticism and receive only the most reserved scorn, amongst them Arbor Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Mother's Day. Seriously, who could hate Mother's Day, a day to celebrate that special someone for all they've done, to reward them with flowers and a sappy card and...rape and murder? That's the crux of Troma's Mother's Day, a gory, ooey-gooey, and highly uncomfortable tale of two sons aiming to please their mother (and have a bit of fun...boys will be boys!) at the expense of three innocent and vacationing young women. There's rape, torture, murder, and a mother who's very proud of her sons. It's sick, twisted, and subtly funny. It'll make audiences squirm and very happy that their mother is the inspiring teacher, the helpful nurse, or the irreplaceable homemaker without whom nothing would have been possible, not the centerpiece character in a movie like Mother's Day.

Where's my card?

Three young women -- Abbey (Nancy Hendrickson), Jackie (Deborah Luce), and Trina (Tiana Pierce) -- were one-time college roommates and still best friends, now scattered across the country and living in L.A., Chicago, and New York. Life and their own personal journeys haven't gotten between them, however. Once a year, they drop everything and reunite for a few days together, remembering the old times, catching up, and doing whatever it is girls do in their time apart from the rest of the world. But this year's going to be different. Really different. They embark on a seemingly innocent camping trip only to be abducted by a pair of twenty-something men, Ike (Holdem McGuire) and Addley (Billy Ray McQuade), who still live and act like they're about half their age. They rape and torture and murder for fun, under the tutelage of the their twisted mother (Rose Ross). Now, the girls must fend off the most dysfunctional family of all time if they are to survive for next year's getaway.

In the grand scheme of the Troma universe, Mother's Day is pretty tame. It's not the most graphic movie of the lot, and it's not the most uncomfortable (ever seen Combat Shock? That might be the most grueling, disagreeable, I-need-a-shower-afterwards movie ever made), but it's certainly a bit of both, visually and thematically alike. It exudes a palpable sense of dread and unease, a movie that literally makes the skin crawl and yields a sense of filth, depravity, and terror with the best of them. For a 2D movie that audiences cannot taste, smell, or touch, it really ingrains itself into the senses and places the audience in the midst of the terror. That's quite the accomplishment, a sign of a very effective movie, but the flip side is that Mother's Day doesn't seem to have much of a purpose beyond being sick and twisted. Some might see smart insight and cultural commentary, others might see pure cinema rubbish. It's a good example of a movie that really pulls the viewer into its depraved universe, but any subtexts are difficult to find through the thick fog that is the incessant sense of unease that hangs over the movie and drifts into the theater or living room. Mother's Day is assisted by an almost gleeful comedic underbelly that helps to lessen the tension but doesn't do much to ease the sense of peril and disgust that's the film's signature element. Audiences who want to feel sucked into such a world will adore Mother's Day; those who don't wish to experience the terror should stay far, far away from this and, frankly, most other Troma movies.

Mother's Day follows a typical Horror formula of several innocents suffering at the hands of the insane, the catch here being both the mother's approval of her son's actions and the fact that the sons are but small children in grown men's bodies. The "peril in the country" thing will be familiar to any Horror fan who has ever seen Wrong Turn or I Spit On Your Grave. It lacks mutated cannibals and a single female victim, but Mother's Day does share common elements with each. It's not as slick as the newer Wrong Turn and not as absolutely involved, purely grotesque, and adrenaline-charged as I Spit On your Grave, but it's a balanced, terrifying movie in its own right that really gets up and under the skin and plays with a very personal, grueling, and involved tone. The movie takes a bit too long to establish its innocent characters, largely because they're little more than generic victims and, later, counter-attackers. They're largely interchangeable and the focus on the single victim rather than multiple victims is what elevates a movie like I Spit... above Mother's Day, that gives it a more immediate and hopeless feel and a greater sense of retribution and gruesome satisfaction when she finally turns the tables. Mother's Day is certainly no slouch, of course. It's just as dramatically despicable and thematically sickening, though that subtle playfulness does occasionally ease up on the accelerator and makes it no so much the incessant nail biter and gut-churning experience that is I Spit On Your Grave.

Technically, Mother's Day is a mixed bag of good and acceptable attributes. As noted, Kaufman manages to pull his audience into the film's unimaginably awful, filthy, and rightening world with surprising ease. The mood defines the picture's visuals nearly as much as the sets themselves, which are simple and worn down but highly effective. The gore isn't quite as sickening as one might see in a film with a bigger budget and more advanced techniques, such as one of the Saw or Hostel movies. The blood's obviously fake and not really the right color or consistency, but add it to the ambience, story, and characters, and the movie looks and feels a whole lot more brutal and authentic than it really is. Lastly, the cast is quite good. The girls are fine, sharing adequate chemistry before the abduction and displaying convincing fear and, later, retaliatory courage and a sense of conditioning and primal instincts that allow them to brutally turn the tables on their attackers. Mother's two sons excel at playing ten-year-old boys in men's bodies, acting every bit the preteen boy yet capable of so much more than the uncomfortable playtime antics they display. Lastly, Rose Ross captures the essence of a psychotic woman with gleeful pleasure, grounded in a kindly maternal exterior and a grandmother-like appearance, but she handles the themes and insanity quite well, really selling the entire movie with the causal way in which she inspires the boys into really bad behavior. What would it take for her to ground them? Conjuring up the devil himself?

Mother's Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mother's Day arrives on Blu-ray from Troma and via Anchor Bay with a stable, sometimes dazzling, 1080p transfer. Generally, this image offers eye-catching, crisp, and steady details. It's sharp and accentuated by a beautifully light grain structure that emphasizes what is sometimes exquisite textures and a pure film-like image. Clarity is often amazing, and even though some of the darker shots can go a bit murky while the occasional brighter shot appears softer and pasty, the bulk of the image will impress longtime fans and newcomers alike. Colors are just as impressive, right from the opening shots that showcase a yellow shirt and a red sweater, for instance. Natural greens seen in bright daytime scenes impress, as do the variety of elements around the house, particularly a red box of Trix cereal seen on the kitchen table the morning after the kidnapping. Skin tones are usually even and black levels aren't too terribly overpowering. Some noise intrudes into the blackest corners of the darkest scenes. The real weak point here is a steady diet of scratches and wear and tear that appear a little too frequently. Overall, however, the crisp details, great colors, and general stability trump the print damage. It's not the perfect, end-all, be-all Mother's Day transfer, but it's largely excellent nonetheless.

Mother's Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mother's Day features a passable but hardly exhilarating Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It's a bit quiet and lacks energy and oomph even in its most active moments. The entire thing remains straight up the middle with no range or sense of space. Dialogue is adequately clear and focused, and it's probably the single most impressive element within the entire presentation. Light city ambience is heard passing through the front in chapter three, and various exteriors offer a few cursory environmental elements later in the second and third acts. The more active moments lack precision and sound more like fumbling background clatter than anything else. Whether overturned items at a general store, a few gunshots, or the famed TV scene near the end of the film, every heavy moment fizzles into a dull, undefined thud. This track is good enough to get listeners through the movie, but it pales in comparison to the generally excellent video presentation.

Mother's Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Mother's Day opens with a Charles Kaufman introduction to the film (1080p, 2:22) in which he discusses the new HD presentation, his bakery, and how his tastes have changed since making the movie. There's also a film-related surprise at the end, so don't skip through it! As for the supplements, the following are included:

• Audio Commentary: Assistant Art Director Rex Piano introduces the commentary from Kaufman's bread shop. He and Charles Kaufman offer some anecdotes from the shoot, point out various moments of "film history," and discuss the film's budget, the work of the crew as extras (including his father's appearance), the film's plot and style as defined by the budget, borrowing a New Jersey thug's car for shooting, making some of the gore effects, shooting locales, product placement, and plenty more. This is an enthusiastic, well-spoken, and insightful commentary. A must-listen for fans.
• Super 8 Behind the Scenes of the Original Mother's Day (1080p, 1:33:1, 10:02): Super 8 footage of screen tests for characters and special effects, with Charles Kaufman commentary.
• Original Mother's Day Trailer (1080p, 1:33:1, 2:15).
• "Ike, Adley, and Eli:" Eli Roth on the Subversive Political Subtext of Mother's Day (1080p, 13:07): Roth enthusiastically discusses his obsession with the film, its influence on his career, the picture's intelligence and social commentary on late 1970s/early 1980s consumerism, the picture's art direction, the background commercials, the performances, the specific purposes of each death, and more.
• Mother's Day at Comic-Con (1080p, 8:08): Charles Kaufman and Darren Bousman discuss the film at Comic-Con 2010.

Mother's Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mother's Day is a pretty repulsive movie, but therein lies its effectiveness. It succeeds at making the audience despise its characters, their actions, and the environment in which they exist. It's not the perfect Horror movie -- not by a long shot -- but it's pretty good at what it does, and the audience will feel dirty, beaten, and worn out by film's end. Mother's Day features good acting and a fair bit of gore. It's not quite as refined and frightening as something like I Spit On Your Grave, but then again, what is? Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Troma's Mother's Day features very good video, mediocre audio, and a good assortment of extra features. Recommended to fans. Newcomers would smartly proceed with caution, and those without the stomach to handle a movie like this already know to stay pretty far away.