What a Mother
Daniel Sohapi (Frank Grillo) and his friends are having a party in the home that he and his with Beth (Jaime King) have moved in to when in walk the Koffin brothers. On the run after a bank job with one of them injured they let thenselves in as this was where they grew up oblivious to the fact their mum and sister were evicted just a couple of months earlier. Holding the friends hostage trouble starts to mount with not only the arrival of a storm but mother Koffin (Rebecca De Mornay) who plan to teach these new residents and friends some lessons.
If I told you that "Mother's Day" is a remake of a movie from the 80s I doubt it would come as a shock as whilst the original low budget movie of the same name is lesser known the whole home invasion storyline has been done time and again. But whilst "Mother's Day" has all the trappings of a home invasion movie with good guys held hostage from some sadistic bad guys this movie not only has a decent cast it also has Darren Lynn Bousman who whilst giving us some graphic violence and horror allows the actors to make their characters what grabs are attention and unsettles us.
What that means is that at the heart of the movie with have Rebecca De Mornay as Natalie 'Mother' Koffin who has an incredible power over her violent sons who do exactly as she orders. The self belief which De Mornay gives Mother Koffin and the way her boys answer to her, afraid despite being larger than her is stunning. But this nicely works down the line because the eldest Koffin son when he is away from mother has a touch of that intimidating nature about him. It makes things intense when ever De Mornay or Patrick John Flueger are in a scene.
But the fear in "Mother's Day" is not just from the Koffin's but the selfish nature of these so called friends who will soon look out for number one if they think they can get away. It makes it all the more intense to the point you almost start to favour Mother and her boys because of these friend's despicable nature and when you have De Mornay making mother such a split personality you almost like her.
What this all boils down to is that "Mother's Day" is exactly how it should be done, pick a lesser known movie and work out how it could have been done better than just going for the cliche route which a lot of horror remakes go down. But this one in particular works because the performances especially from Rebecca De Mornay who one again gives a lesson in how to do crazy.
