Mother’s Day (1980)

My first-ever trip to The USA coincided with the initial theatrical run of a film I hadn’t previously known about called “Mother’s Day“.  In the autumn of 1980, horror movies were splattered all over town.  It was the height of the post-Halloween, and Friday the 13^th Slasher era, and everyone was trying to cash in.  Naïve fools that we were visiting New York City for the first time, we decided to hole up at a hotel bang in the middle of Times Square, surrounded by Live Burlesque and Peep shows.  Yet this was the theatre district featuring dozens of cinemas. 

From the Arthouse to the cinemas like The Criterion, which had over 2000 seats in those days and was known for premiering blockbusters.  There were the Grindhouse cinemas of 42^nd Street with their typical billboards, usually with at least three attractions per ticket and almost always featuring, Sex, Exploitation, B Grade Action, Kung Fu or dubious horror fare.  Plenty of punters visiting the cinemas of 42^nd Street weren’t there for the movie, though, to be fair. 

We were staying a few yards off-Broadway at a fleapit dive on 46^th or 47^th Street, and I couldn’t care if the “Hotel” was one of the sleazy kind catering to customers on an hourly rate.  I hadn’t seen a cockroach, and all those great cinemas meant I was ready to feast like never before.  There were so many theatres that no longer exist today. 

A block up from where Criterion used to be (and still is?), there were several cinemas with multiple smaller screens, and in one of them, I saw a poster of Mother’s Day showcased.  The poster art was immediately attractive to sick horror fiends like me, and I planned to slot it into a horror-watching binge schedule.  Also in the same complex was a film that had made a name for itself, and I intended to watch right away titled Maniac the added attraction was that it was the Unrated Version – too nasty and graphic for even an X rating!  There were scores of other theatres nearby featuring Terror Train, Motel Hell, He Knows You’re Alone, The Boogeyman and scores of other horror movies that were churned out rapidly by eager studios.  The next afternoon, I rolled up to watch Mother’s Day with high expectations.  I remember being quite entertained and feeling as though it was a rough version of The Friday the 13^th meets Deliverance meets Straw Dogs thing, done with a bit of satire and tongue-in-cheek humour thrown in. 

The film was cheap and cheerful good horror romp.  I enjoyed it for the first time in a cinema that time forgot in Times Square in October 1980.  Tunes playing on the radio heard all around town in those days were Barbara Streisand’s A Woman in Love, Tom Browne’s Funkin’ For Jamaica and Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust were on repeat 24 hours a day.  So, unfortunately, was Air Supply’s insipid I’m All Out of Love.

Another grim cheapie churned out by some indie studio during the height of the early 80’s horror wave.  Mother’s Day will satisfy most genre fans due to its balance of humour, gore and occasional tension.

It is similar to Deliverance or Straw Dogs but with an ultra-low budget, horror-oriented treatment.  Three girlfriends leave the big city for their annual reunion and camping trip to discuss the good old days.  This time it will be a very different sort of trip where the fun game is to stay alive.

The acting is about normal for the low end of the genre – adequate at its very best.  “Mother” provides some good old campy fun along the way and probably makes history as the screen’s first Psycho granny (actually, from fact).  One death scene, in particular, is memorable with splendid and novel use of drain opening fluid to murderous effect!  The gore effects are occasionally laughable, like near the opening when a man about to be slashed in the neck develops a fatal cut before the knife makes contact with him.

A twisted pseudo-feminist horror film which would end up having feminists even more outraged at their depiction in such films, but then nothing pleases this particular ilk anyway.  Political correctness aside, it’s a gem of a cheapie – good for a laugh, gruesome, and nasty enough to make you avert your eyes occasionally.  One to watch once a year every time “Mother’s Day” rolls up, as we suggest watching “My Bloody Valentine” every Valentine’s Day.  Time has been far kinder to My Bloody Valentine and a little harsher to Mother’s Day.  Both Films have enjoyed remakes, but after all the years, Valentine has stood up to the test of time far better than Mother’s Day.

The occasion of watching films like Mother’s Day in old-school Times Square is cherished.  The movie was perhaps less memorable than the aura of the experience of The Deuce of 1980—a place like no other on earth.