Trágico fin de semana, 2a parte: los herederos del mal

A trio of girlfriends go into the woods for a camping getaway and end up kidnapped and terrorized by a deranged woman and her two vicious sons.

More Last House on the Left than Friday the 13th, Mother's Day is a sick and twisted film that still has a decent sense of humor most of the time. The three leads are likable enough to root for them to break out of the hell they're going through and the three villains are admirably evil and disgusting enough to give you the creeps and pray that the three leads will give them a taste of their own medicine.

MORD39 RATING: *** out of ****

Let's get something straight: This movie is offensive. It features an old mom urging her two misfit sons to brutally rape, torture, abuse, and murder young women for her entertainment. BUT IT'S BRILLIANT, AND WELL DONE FOR ITS TYPE.

With a shlocky piece of exploitation like this, we rarely if ever get a story and character development in the mix. The story of a group of young women planning a weekend getaway for their reunion celebration first provides us with background history detailing their personalities and personal problems. We get to know these girls...and once they get "caught" by the family of crazies, we share their dilemma.

I might also say that the surprise beginning really grabbed me (I first saw the movie in a theatre in 1980 and had no clue what was going to happen), and the ending is also pretty good.

As gruesome as these killers are in the film, you almost feel for them too. You sense that the imbecile sons are victims of their overbearring mother, and have had no proper upbringing to keep them from being such animals. Even mother is pathetic in a pitiful way.

MOTHER'S DAY will probably never be respected, and it is not for everybody. But I respect it and feel it stands out far in front of zillions of other exploitation/slasher knock-off's.

This film is certainly not for everybody, but it is actually so refreshing to see a movie that is done in this way. It is exploitation at it's finest. It is comedy at it's most tragic! A simple plot mixed with darn good acting, and impressive makeup effects...you really can't go wrong.

In my opinion, while still in the same vein as Last House on the Left and I Spit on your Grave, it is not as good. Spit being the best of the 3, but each of them has something to offer.

If you're not sure you can watch it, let me give you this scene as an example...one deranged man rapes a woman while his brother takes Kodak Polaroids, and their mother instructs them and leads them on...sound bad, yeah, but take it for what it is. Silly, odd disturbing nonsense. But it was more a "mood" movie, based around the characters and settings vs. the horror of rape and disturbing shots. This kind of horror sound like your thing? Then you're in luck, it's worth it.

When I saw that Troma produced this, I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch this. While I enjoy their films, I wasn't in the mood for something as silly as those usually are. Mother's Day, thankfully, isn't quite like any other Troma film I've seen. It's mean, bleak, and nasty at times, but also has just enough of a sense of humor to keep the movie from being unbearable.

In the film, three girlfriends reconnect for a weekend of camping and are captured by two redneck brothers and their psychotic mother who want to use them for their own sick and twisted games.

When Mother's Day wants to get nasty, it goes all the way in. The disturbing moments stick with you and make you feel lousy and disgusted. You really root for these girls to overcome their troubles and get revenge which makes the final act so much more satisfying.

This movie is completely insane.

It has every single idea and the kitchen sink shoved into a script. It is so unhinged it just seems to bounce around from scene to scene franticly. It is so fun to watch.

I also think there are bones of a great story buried in here somewhere. The relationship between the main characters is heartwarming sometimes, it just needs polishing up.

The villains however, Jesus Christ. They are like evil cartoon characters that may also be stunt men but also amateur actors?? They are the most bizarre horror villains I have ever seen. They have no purpose for what they do, the things they do are just insane and I don't mean like killing people.

This movie is a slasher/horror but it has like comedy/coming of age flashbacks that feel like they are out of a totally different movie. This is honestly one of the most insane films, it has a mind of its own.

And I didn't know if it knew what it was doing was going to make people laugh. One of the final parts is the most bizarre thing Iv seen but from my understanding it's meant to be serious? But it's hilarious.

Watch this movie but be warned there is one very uncomfortable scene that I really wish wasn't in this movie because it's gross and takes away from this camp disaster.