Mother's Day (1980)

Directed by: Charles Kaufman
Written by: Charles Kaufman, Warren Leight
Starring: Tiana Pierce, Nancy Hendrickson, Deborah Luce
Release date: 19th September 1980
Runtime: 1:31
BBFC certificate: 18 for strong violence and sexual violence

Summary: Two demented brothers (Frederick Coffin, Michael McCleery) kidnap and brutalise three women (Pierce, Hendrickson, Luce) in order to impress their equally deranged mother (Beatrice Pons).

Review: This is a rape and revenge movie, but it's extremely campy. The Last House on the Left had silly scenes that led up to the disturbing ones; Mother's Day is goofy the whole way through, but hey, what do you expect from a Troma film?

In the beginning, the mother and sons kill a hippy couple, the girlfriend of which looked like Lady Gaga. About half an hour in, the three main girls are camping in the woods when the brothers show up out of nowhere and kidnap them. The movie tries to get us to know the girls beforehand, but there's no real character development.

This film is actually pretty funny. It has a lot of tongue-in-cheek parts that work really well. The brothers bicker a lot and the mother tells them off like they're little kids, which I found amusing. They introduce a subplot involving the mother's deformed sister living in the woods, but it doesn't really come into play until the very end.

As expected from a Troma movie, the acting is hammy all around, but it only adds to the charm. If you watch it with the right standards, this is a very good horror film.

Trivia: Frederick Coffin, Michael McCleery, and Beatrice Pons are credited under pseudonyms.