It's Mother's Day!

In honor of Mother's Day, I present to you: Mother's Day, a 1980 Horror film written and directed by Charles Kaufman (not that Charlie Kaufman) and released by Troma Entertainment.


This film is fully entrenched in the 1970s. The fashions, the style, the music. That specific film stock that only these kinds of horror films seem to have used... The story revolves around three women, Abbey, Jackie and Trina. While on a camping trip, they run into a group of hillbillies named Ike and Addley along with their insane mother. The three poor women are attacked and brutalized by this group, along the same lines of what you'd expect from a slasher of that time.

The film itself was better than I expected. It was certainly a low budget horror flick, but the film is enjoyable in its own right. They hit just about every mark a horror film should. The people behind the film have a slight sense of humor, as there is a "bus terminal" in the film, and it looks like they simply shot it at an abandoned landfill (The joke is that they're in New Jersey). They cross paths with some hillbillies at a gas station/convenience store, and while it doesn't do much within the film aside from establish some of the mood, it looks *just* like a scene from the hilarious comedy-horror film, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, which I always feel the need to give props to (can that film get distributed soon?).

There are some good fake scares early on in the film, and the stuff that happens to these girls is pretty gruesome and sadistic. These hillbilly punks are one screwed up family. They're not as disgusting as the ones from the X-Files episode, "Home," but they're close. I'm pretty sure I had an Sesame Street alarm clock like the one that featured around the 44 minute mark in the film, though it's a lot more creepy in this particular film then when I was growing up...

Another 1980 horror film outshines this one is Friday the 13th, in that it has a stronger "mother" element than this one and is a lot more memorable. The film has been remade and apparently released starring Rebecca De Mornay not that long ago.

In the UK, the film was rejected by the BBFC banning it from sale and is apparently still banned to this day. Due to portrayals of extreme violence and rape, I do not recommend sitting down with your own mother to watch this movie.