Site icon Philosophy in Film

Review: Mother’s Day (1980) a film by Charles Kaufman

Mother's Day (1980) review

&NewLine;<p><em>Mother’s Day<&sol;em> &lpar;1980&rpar;&comma; written and directed by Charles Kaufman &lpar;brother of Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman&rpar;&comma; tells the story of three women who go out to the woods for an annual camping trip&period; The film establishes the three women&comma; Abbey&comma; Jackie&comma; and Trina&comma; as longtime friends with years of shared experiences&period; They plan these annual get-togethers to relieve the stress of their daily lives and bond with one another&period; However&comma; just as they get comfortable out in the woods&comma; two sadistic&comma; backwoods brothers and their unhinged mother take the women hostage&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; Kaufman does not dedicate much screen time to the women and their backstory&period; Instead&comma; the majority of the film follows them as they attempt to escape their captors&period; The two inbred brothers&comma; Ike and Addley&comma; are hopelessly devoted to their mother&period; She puts them through rigorous combat training on a daily basis&comma; creating a secluded world in which they worship her and obey her every command&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em> shares some obvious similarities with Tobe Hooper’s <em>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<&sol;em> &lpar;1974&rpar;&period; That said&comma; the latter is a far superior and more horrific film about a deranged family that captures&comma; tortures&comma; and murders a group of unsuspecting 20-somethings&period; Unlike <em>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Mother’s Day<&sol;em> just feels like a derivative attempt at rape-revenge horror with a shallow attempt at psychoanalysis&period; It is always very evident in films&comma; especially horror films&comma; when the filmmakers put in contrived symbolism and Freudian imagery without the slightest hint of subtlety&period; They want to raise their film above the level of mere exploitation&comma; but in most cases &lpar;including <em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In <em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em>&comma; the story really drives home the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;overbearing mother” theme&period; We briefly catch a glimpse of Abbey’s home life&comma; where her mother berates her for not taking care of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a sick old woman&period;&&num;8221&semi; The sound of her mother’s screams comes back toward the end of the film when Abbey confronts the deranged mother in the woods&period; At one point&comma; a character uses a pair of plastic blow-up breasts to suffocate one of the villains&period; I guess this helped ensure that audiences didn&&num;8217&semi;t miss the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;your mother is killing you” theme&period; These are just a few of many&comma; many examples throughout the film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image wp-image-695"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;mothersday1980&period;png" alt&equals;"Mother's Day &lpar;1980&rpar; death scene" class&equals;"wp-image-695" width&equals;"1200" height&equals;"600"&sol;><figcaption>The deaths are rather tame and uninteresting compared to other slasher films &lpar;Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day&comma; 1980&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Cheesy symbolism aside&comma; <em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day <&sol;em>&lpar;1980&rpar; is simply not a very good film&period; The plot is a flimsy&comma; half-plausible excuse to show exploitative carnage&period; Even for those drawn to blood and gore&comma; the film disappoints&period; There are 70s and 80s slasher films with much more impressive special effects and death scenes&comma; even on a similarly meager budget&period; At the risk of sounding like an adoring fan&comma; go watch <em>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<&sol;em> for real low-budget scares&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the horror should arise from the perverse family dynamic&comma; the psychotic hillbillies simply act bizarre&comma; rather than horrifying&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re inherent &&num;8220&semi;otherness&&num;8221&semi; feels silly rather than scary&period; The mother&comma; as the main villain&comma; does a little better at providing scares&period; However&comma; when you compare her to the mother in Sean S&period; Cunningham&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Friday the 13th<&sol;em> &lpar;1980&rpar;&comma; she just doesn&&num;8217&semi;t do enough to send chills down your spine&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is where the film really falters&period; The obvious focus on the symbolism and half-cocked psychoanalysis overpower the horrific elements in <em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em>&period; Even in 1980&comma; there had already been dozens of slasher movies focused on deranged families&period; The slasher genre lends itself to analysis&comma; so piling on the symbolism just feels like overkill &lpar;no pun intended&rpar;&period; Instead&comma; director Charles Kaufman should have taken a page from his brother&&num;8217&semi;s book and either a&rpar; made <em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em> a horror-comedy or b&rpar; focused on creating actual scares or believable gore&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I can forgive the film’s low video and audio quality&comma; considering the small budget &lpar;&dollar;115&comma;000 USD&rpar;&period; However&comma; it doesn’t change the fact that many of the scenes just look ugly&period; Natural lighting is used far too often&comma; giving it the look of a home-movie made in someone&&num;8217&semi;s backyard&period; To make matters worse&comma; the poor camera quality gives every shot an ugly&comma; smudged appearance&period; On some level&comma; <em>Mother’s Day<&sol;em> is more of a parody of a horror film than a legitimate horror film&period; Either way&comma; it is still not very enjoyable or memorable&period; Fortunately&comma; there are far better low-budget slashers out there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Rating&colon; &starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <strong><em>Mother&&num;8217&semi;s Day<&sol;em> &lpar;1980&rpar;<&sol;strong>&comma; it is available to rent or purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B00106UARG&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B00106UARG&amp&semi;linkId&equals;9cba4494756d015903a51219aa3ac6c4">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version