Review: Mother’s Day

Jaime King and husband Frank Grillo are having a party in their basement with three other couples in the home they just bought. Unfortunately, the festivities are short-lived as three criminal brothers (Patrick Flueger, Warren Kole, and Matt O’Leary) burst in. They used to own the home, but since they haven’t kept in touch with their mother, they’re unaware that the house had been sold. Whilst the couples are held hostage, doctor Shawn Ashmore is forced at gunpoint to attend to the severely wounded O’Leary. Finally, mother (Rebecca DeMornay) shows up, along with the boys’ sister Deborah Ann Woll. Mother chastises her offspring for their inhospitable behaviour, however, once she realises that her sons had mistakenly sent the money they reappropriated in a string of bank robberies to this address, she sets about having people tortured to get King and Grillo to fess up to its whereabouts. She does bake everyone a cake, however.

 

Apparently the 80s original was a blend of backwoods horror/thriller and slasher pic (from Troma, oddly enough), and this 2010 Darren Lynn Bousman (“Repo! A Genetic Opera”, and “Saw II” which was his first and best film to date) loose remake takes things out of the backwoods and into suburbia. The result is quite a lot like a sillier version of the Spanish flick “Kidnapped”, also released in 2010. Hell, there’s even the same scene of a kidnapper and hostage making a trip to an ATM to empty out bank accounts. That makes it a bit less unpleasant, but no better than “Kidnapped”. In fact, it might be marginally worse than “Kidnapped”. In particular, I felt it took way too long for the victims to realise they have the numbers to do something about their situation. Bousman and the screenwriter try to get around it, but it’s obvious from moment one that this is as unlikely a kidnapping/hostage scenario as you’re likely to find, and the film for me never recovered. I mean, is it normal for thirty-somethings to have parties in their basement? That sounds more like teenage behaviour to me, or more to the point, lazy screenwriting trying to cover up the obvious numbers advantage our victims have. Then again, the film never really got around to introducing us properly to these people anyway, after throwing them at us all at once. I’ve heard this is a loose remake at best, so I lay most of the blame here on this film’s screenwriter Scott Milam, whose work in this is especially clunky.

 

A facially immobile Rebecca DeMornay is not nearly as good in the title role as you’d think (she made a terrifically icy Milady De Winter), never once getting into the hammy spirit like she should have. She has her moments, but for the most part seems to be offering a half-hearted rendition of her Greatest Hits. Patrick Flueger, however is decent, and although wasted, Shawn Ashmore is always solid. Meanwhile, one actress looks so much like R&B star Rihanna that certain scenes are very uncomfortable to watch. Also needlessly distracting is the music score, which sounds way too much like ‘Tubular Bells’. Am I the only one?

 

The film is pretty lousy, and at least 10-15 minutes too long. Glorious gunshot to the head, however. Troma Studios head honcho Lloyd Kaufman understandably acts as producer, as does Brett Ratner for some strange reason. Any idea why that is?

 

Rating: C