MOTHER'S DAY (2010) Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman

So after reading back some of my reviews and the length of them and finding that it's really hard to write two page reviews I have decided that I’m going to cut down the length of my writing as it takes way to long for me write these bastards. So here is my first 'shorter' review and it's for Darren Lynn Bousman's recent remake of Troma's MOTHER'S DAY.

If you are unfamiliar with Troma, they're the guys who brought us films such as the Toxic Avenger, Class Of Nuke 'em High and Terror Firmer, they're a exploitation outfit based out of an office in New York and work on extremely low budgets but throw everything they have at the screen. Mother's Day is a remake of one of their movies and the budget is considerably higher. The Original film centred around a group of collage girls who decided to go camping in the woods only to get abducted by a woman and her two sons.
This remake is only a remake in name only and is more a home invasion movie as this one takes place mostly inside the home of a Beth and Daniel as they throw a party. Three wanted criminals enter the house with one of them severely injured. It turns out that they're brothers and the house used to belong to their mother who lost the house and they were unaware. They call in the mother who finds out that her kids had been sending money to that address but as she no longer lived there she wasn't receiving it. The mother turns out to be far more sadistic than her two able sons and sets about causing havoc to find out where the money is.

It's a very different film to the original and although the graphic violence is there, this is more crime thriller than a horror film. But as this is from the director of Saw 2, 3 and 4, the blood is going to flow and we get some neat little kills and some pretty brutal on screen torture. People get bones smashed by Pool balls, Nails fired through the face, ears scolded off and heads set on fire so that element of horror is there but instead of doing it just because it's fun or because you believe these horrendous things should be done to these people to teach them a lesson, the violence in this film is to get the where-abouts of a stash of money. The villains have a motive.

The film has some seriously good performances too with the likes of the Frank Grillo (Warrior), Jaime King (BulletProof Monk) and Sean Ashmore (X-Men) leading the pack but are ably supported by up and coming actors and actresses like Briana Evigan (Step Up 2) and Patrick Flueger as the ring leader and eldest son Ike. But the film really belongs to Rebecca De Mornay as she plays the single most sadistic female character since Blanche Baker in Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. De Mornay's character is the kind of person who believes that what she's doing is helping her family survive, doing the greater good and protecting them by teaching them to kill. I haven't seen De Mornay since Risky Business (that first scene....WOW) and she's absolutely brilliant in this.

Darren Lynn Bousman could easily have gone the root of indie horror director after shooting three consecutive SAW movies but instead used his clout from those to make Repo: The Genetic Opera, which will it does at times seem a bit of shambles it does have ambition and shows that he's not a one trick pony, it also has a killer soundtrack. Here he has a brilliant grasp on the visuals, instead of making everything dark, the house setting is well lit, the set is pretty good and eye for a good kill is spot on. One scene stood out for me which was a scene set on a stretch of road with a police man, this scene could have easily been badly shot due to the rain but it's handled really well and visually looks brilliant. While it is a film that does have moments of brutal sadistic violence, it's still a very well shot film and kudos to Bousman for that.

Overall it's a satisfying watch which had some moments of greatness and some brilliant performances but it was too long, it clocked in at 111minutes which is far too long for a film of this kind. It is however one of the better horror remakes of the last few years and as a horror fan of old, I can say for me this can sit along side My Bloody Valentine, Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave as the best of the bunch. A recommendation from this guy then?...you bet your ass.