31 Days of Halloween - Day 12: Mother's Day (1980)

For the last few years I always do a 31 days of Halloween month. The past few years I re-read all the original Goosebumps books and before that I'd watch 31 horror movies. However I realized every single time I watched 31 Horror movies I exclusively picked ones I enjoyed. I decided to do something slightly different. I composed a list of every horror movie I owned and put them in alphabetical order. Then using a random number generator I generated 31 numbers and watched the movies that corresponded with those numbers. Some are great films and others… well… are less than fun let's say. I hope you enjoy!

Day 12: Mother's Day (Movie #329)

There's a chance that you are only familiar with Mother's Day because of the recent remake. The remake is a remake in name only and while in a lot of ways it is superior to the original I still prefer this version of the film.

This Troma film (directed by Lloyd's brother Charlie Kaufman) isn't as tromarific and other titles but it's obvious that the Kaufman brother's share a very similar sense of humor. The first 20 minutes or so of the movie basically is a college road trip film. However when the horror element squeaks in it's practically a pre-cusor to the torture porn genre.

That's not just me making up shit either. When I had Lloyd Kaufman on my podcast he mentioned that this movie was Eli Roth's (creator of Hostel) favorite film. Hostel along with Saw definitely helped ring in a couple years of demented psychological horror and torture. The only difference is Hostel didn't have a shitty plaster head in a birdcage… which makes this movie much much better.

Mother's Day follows a group of 3 female college friends who get together every year for a road trip and to relive their past memories. On a camping trip full of pot and skinny dipping the three find themselves kidnapped and in the home of two deranged brothers and their evil Mother. 

These boys will do anything to make Mama proud, including rape and murder. The film's sense of humor is very similar to Texas Chainsaw Massacre's having complete insane characters acting like a perfect family. One particularly memorable scene involves the brothers coming home to brag about how they beat and kidnapped the girls only to be disciplined by their mother for not wiping their feet before they entered the house.

In the end the film turns into a revenge film in a similar (but fair less dark) vein of Last House on the Left and I Spit On Your Grave. While it's a greatly flawed and ultra-low budget horror movie, there's just too much charm to not find enjoyment in Mother's Day.

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon. He also loves it when people surprise him with purchases from his Amazon Wishlist… just saying.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5: Stitches

For the last few years I always do a 31 days of Halloween month. The past few years I re-read all the original Goosebumps books and before that I'd watch 31 horror movies. However I realized every single time I watched 31 Horror movies I exclusively picked ones I enjoyed. I decided to do something slightly different. I composed a list of every horror movie I owned and put them in alphabetical order. Then using a random number generator I generated 31 numbers and watched the movies that corresponded with those numbers. Some are great films and others… well… are less than fun let's say. I hope you enjoy!

Day 5: Stitches (Movie #450)

Stitches is one of the newer movies on the list. It's one of four films released in the last two-three years. I first heard of the movie when Geekscape was emailed about it looking to see if anyone wanted to review it. I was slow to respond and someone else beat me to it but praised it so heavily that grabbed a copy of my own when it was on sale at Best Buy less than a month later.

This film is painfully underrated at this time and I genuinely hope it finds it audience in the future and develops the kind of cult following it deserves. It's got a genuinely good blend of horror and comedy, some amazing kills and most importantly the jokes actually are funny (a rare feat in horror comedies).

The story follows a group of kids who accidentally kill a clown at a birthday party. A couple years later the clown raises from the dead to exact vengeance on the kids who killed him. That's basically everything you need to know. There's a lot of weird and wacky twists but specifically given how new this movie is I don't feel right spoiling anything.

I will say that the film is extremely stylized in it's filming and editing and while it sometimes relies on CGI it's got a pretty heavily dose of practical effects. The only major issue is that the practical effects definitely makes the CGI parts look shittier.

Regardless I had a great time rewatching this and while it was only the second time I sat down to watch it I wouldn't be shocked if I decided to force some friends to watch this later on this movie.

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon. He also loves it when people surprise him with purchases from his Amazon Wishlist… just saying.