Day 313: Mother's Day

Mother's Day

Mommy dearest

We've had horror movies commemorating just about every holiday. We have New Year's Evil, My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas, Leprechaun, Uncle Sam, April Fool's Day, and Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!. I'm still waiting for a good Chanukah horror movie, but I just may have to make that one myself. These movies are fun in a goofy, niche sort of way, so when I watched today's movie, I was expecting it to be over-the-top and fun. After all, the movie is written and directed by Charles Kaufman, the brother of Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman. That's a recipe for goofyness, right? Heck, maybe even the Toxic Avenger will show up! How wrong I was.

Mother's Day is a 1980 exploitation horror film starring Nancy Hendrickson as Abbey, Deborah Luce as Jackie, and Tiana Pierce as Trina. The three former college roommates reunite on a camping trip in rural New Jersey. The reminisce about old times, including one night when they embarrassed a jock that was trying to sleep with one of them. Their good times are interrupted when two hillbillies named Ike and Addley kidnap them and bring them to their house. The hillbillies live with their mentally unstable and demanding mother (Rose Ross, Sgt. Bilko, Car 54, Where Are You?). They take one of the girls and go through a strange ritual, acting out various romantic scenarios while Mother watches. Soon, the games are over and the girl is beaten and raped. The next day we see the family in their bizarre daily life, eating sugary food, yelling, fighting, debating punk versus disco, and all sorts of other insanity. Mother keeps the boys in order, telling them that her sister Queenie, who lives out in the wild, will come and get them. When one of the girls is killed, the other two escape and plan their revenge. Will they be able to stop the deranged family and does Queenie really exist?

"Oh, word?"

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't like torture movies. Mother's Day borders the line of torture movies as we don't see the customary violence and gore of today's “torture porn”. That's not to say there aren't scenes of violence because there are plenty. There are also scenes of rape, which made me incredibly uncomfortable. The movie moves slowly at times and seems to get lost once the girls are captured. The revenge towards the end is cathartic, but it feels a bit too rushed. The ending comes out of left field and is eye-roll worthy in it's forehead-slapping stupidity. Troma films tend to either be over-the-top funny or over-the-top violent/gross/insane. Mother's Day can't decide which way to go and settles for both, but succeeding with neither. I found myself constantly checking the run-time, hoping the movie was coming to an end.

This movie is a hodge-podge of ideas coming from much better films. It's obvious that Mother's Day takes many of it's ideas from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Last House On The Left. Mother's Day had the chance to expand upon the initial themes from those movies and make something different, but it just goes through the motions. I will say that the movie does show a bit of creativity when the hillbillies act out the romantic scenarios with one of the girls. It truly showed their derangement and was very unsettling because you knew what was going to happen. Unfortunately, it was a missed opportunity because the scenes are rushed. They could have been downright terrifying if they were paced properly. The acting in the movie is fine for what is required, but that's not saying much. I will say that Charles Kaufman does get some very good shots behind the director's chair. Hey, at least that's something.

Hammer time!

I watched Mother's Day expecting something in the “so bad it's good” vein. Instead, I got a “so bad it's bad” horror movie. Despite having a cult following, I did not find the movie enjoyable. Apparently, the film is supposed to be satire, though I didn't pick up even a trace of satirical material. The story is lifted from much better horror movies which makes me wonder why they even bothered to make this one. There is a lot of violence against women in the film which will make a lot of people uncomfortable, myself included. The revenge scenes are good, but I could have used more. If you're going to see a movie like this, you're better off with the better-known films like The Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and I Spit On Your Grave. I wouldn't be quick to recommend those either, but they at least have stories. Troma should just stick with funny horror. It would make me a lot happier.

2.5/10

Day 291: Sleepaway Camp

Sleepaway Camp

Yeah, stabbing a shoe makes complete sense

The term “cult classic” is given to many horror movies, perhaps more than any other genre of film. It's important to remember that just because a movie is a cult classic, that doesn't mean that it is classic. It's cult for a reason. Sometimes it's because the movie is obscure or too strange or eccentric for the mainstream. Other times it's because the movie is utterly terrible and people like to laugh at it. Then there are those few films that gain cult status due to one or two memorable scenes. These scenes are so shocking that just uttering the name of the movie will cause be to go, “Oh, that's the movie where...”. Sleepaway Camp is one of those movies.

Sleepaway Camp is a 1983 slasher horror movie starring Felissa Rose (Return To Sleepaway Camp, Satan's Playground) as Angela Baker. Angela's father and brother Peter, were killed in a boating accident and she was sent to live with her eccentric aunt and cousin, Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten, Return To Sleepaway Camp, The Perfect House). After the accident, Angela has become introverted and rarely speaks. Ricky and Angela are sent to Camp Arawak for the summer. Due to her shy nature, Angela is bullied by some of the campers and her counselor, Meg. Ricky tries to protect Angela and actually saves her from the head cook Artie who tries to molest her. While Artie is boiling water, and unseen person knocks him off a chair, sending boiling water all over his body. The teasing continues and Ricky, along with his friend Paul, get into a fight with some other boys. Angela begins to open up to Paul and a relationship slowly starts to build between the two. Meg continues to torment Angela, asking why she refuses to shower with the other girls and why she never goes swimming. At the same time, the body count beings to rise around camp, although they all appear to be accidents. Mel, who runs the camp, suspects that it's Ricky behind all the “accidents” and is determined to catch him. Who is really behind the murders and is Angela really who she says she is?

"I left the oven on! My pies will burn!"

This movie came out during the slasher heyday of the early 1980's, but it's general concept was nothing new. By 1983, we already had multiple “youth at a camp” slashers including the far-more popular Friday The 13^th, The Burning, and Madman. I will give Sleepaway Camp credit in focusing more on the actual campers than the counselors, which does make the killings more disturbing. This would have been a great chance for the movie to really separate itself from the “camp site” slasher pack, but unfortunately, nothing of real interest occurs. It's not that the movie directly ripped-off previous slashers, it's just kind of lazy. The kills are actually creative and fun to watch, but when Sleepaway Camp focuses on anything else, the movie comes to a grinding halt. We get that Angela is bullied, we don't need to see it for an hour. Her relationship with Paul is barely-there and just serves to get to the shock ending. The acting is pretty bad and some of the character's motivations are questionable.

Now, I normally don't like to give away major twists, but I feel it's necessary to discuss in order to properly review the movie. While most know what it is, if you've never seen Sleepaway Camp, I suggest you skip over this paragraph. Needless to say, SPOILER ALERT. The big twist ending is that Angela is in fact, Peter, who we previously thought was killed in the boating accident. For whatever reason, her aunt decided to raise her as a girl. Other than being nuts, there's no real reason given as to why she did this and why Angela went along with it. I guess we can chalk it up to being traumatized, but come on. While that information is fairly surprising, it's how we learn that Angela is actually a boy: a full-frontal naked shot of a blood-covered Angela, penis and all. To top that all off, the final scene has a naked Angela with an insane look on her face that lasts an unnaturally long time. Seriously, look at that picture below. Keep looking at it for at least 15 seconds. That's the end of the movie which was incredibly unsettling. Weird and pointless, but unsettling. The twist is quite shocking, though it doesn't really add that much to the story itself. Why does Angela go on a killing spree now? Has she killed anyone before? Why bother exposing herself now after hiding for so long? I don't know, I'm probably thinking too much on a movie who's main purpose is to shock the audience by showing a wang.

"Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Welcome back, those of you who wanted to keep the ending a secret. Sleepaway Camp is a fairly mundane slasher film with a real mediocre story. There are a lot of holes in the story and the poor acting is hard to ignore. You're better off watching several other “camp site” horror movies. There are some interesting kills, though the movie lacked the blood and gore that was prevalent in other slashers from the same time. The movie has gained cult status thanks to it's truly shocking ending, having been immortalized in multiple songs and even parodied in the stop-motion show Robot Chicken. Just because something is cult status doesn't mean it's good. There's no real need to see the entire movie since the last 5 minutes are the only interesting and disturbing part.

4/10