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In the past few years, Hollywood has been remaking horror movies without any signs of stopping.
While modern classics like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" were obvious targets, one remake slated for production was an odd, but understandable choice..
I’m speaking of "Mother’s Day," a relatively obscure ’80s horror movie directed by Charles Kaufman (brother of Lloyd Kaufman of Troma, who currently owns the rights to the film).
A remake of "Mother’s Day" is currently filming with Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour"), Darren Lynn Bousman of the "Saw" sequels directing and a budget of $11 million – which is almost a hundred times what the original film cost to produce.
However, it appears that the remake will more or less just use the same title – which is good, because the original "Mother’s Day" can definitely stand as a time capsule of the era that it was created.
The original movie’s plot is relatively simple: a group of three former college roommates (Nancy Hendrickson, Deborah Luce, and Tiana Pierce) head out into the woods for a reunion vacation, only to find themselves at the hands of a family of sadistic killers.
As expected from a horror movie with the title "Mother’s Day," the head of the psychotic family unit is Mother (Rose Ross) and her two sons Ike (Holden McGuire) and Addley (Billy Rae McQuade) are willing to do anything to make her proud.
Even weirder, the reason behind Mother’s love of watching her sons kill people is she has been training them to protect her from "Queenie" – her sister who apparently lives in the woods and is out to kill her.
Unfortunately for the main characters, that training includes just about every torture that one could expect from a crazy backwoods horror movie from the ’80s.
"Mother’s Day" is actually a pretty slow movie for most of its runtime, with the first hour featuring more college-age flashbacks than the violent horror fans are expecting.
But as it builds up to the climax, the film proves to have some of the most inventive sequences from this era of horror films.
I think that "Mother’s Day" is the only horror movie to ever have one of its villains get taken out with a bottle of Drano.
Even more interesting is how the film really shows its age by clearly being a product of the time at which it was produced.
The film opens with a scene that spoofs the popular self-help seminars of the late ’70s, and Ike and Addley continually debate their musical tastes between punk and disco.
It’s doubtful these kinds of elements will be present in the remake, though both the Kaufman brothers are rumored to be making cameo appearances.
Overall, "Mother’s Day" isn’t a great film, but of all the low-budget slasher films that were coming out in the ’80s, it’s definitely a highlight, and it’s not surprising its iconic title would eventually be tapped for the remake treatment.
Grade: B+
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