La casa maldita

I haven't seen the original Troma film of which this is based, but I've been looking forward to this one and it was worth the wait! The movie is very well paced, were thrown straight into the horror in the first 10 Min's (and this being a film by Darren Lynn Bousman (saw 2,3,4), there is plenty of horror on show)! Were barely introduced to the characters when the blood starts pouring, but i still found myself caring for each of them! With no sense of what was going to happen next or who was going to die, i was permanently on the edge of my seat! The show belongs to De Mornay, her performance as Mother is as chilling as Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, cool and calm on second but deadly the next. With some memorable deaths, each totally unexpected, and a few twists along the way, i found this film a real surprise and one every horror fan especially should check out!

This is yet another home invasion movie but one with a bit of a difference. Allied to the usual psychopathic housebreakers is the added ingredient of their mother.

I didn't really buy into the set up as it's pretty far fetched however that's not really the point of these movies so it didn't spoil it for me. Rebecca De Mornay is manic and slightly over the top as the ruthless mother of the psycho's. The rest of the cast put in surprisingly convincing performances.

The film takes plenty of twists and increasingly brutal and at times unrealistic turns but nevertheless always remains horribly watchable. You do almost at times question why you are entertained by the horrific happenings.

The film is very brutal and there are quite a few unpleasant scenes so if you don't like these kind of films you won't like it. For horror fans though this is a well made and very watchable film which is as unpredictable as you could wish for.

Now THIS is the type of horror movie remake that I – and surely many other avid genre fanatics with me – certainly don't mind seeing! The new film by Darren Lynn Bousman, who should have turned his back on the "Saw" franchise much sooner, is loosely based on a 1980 flick with the same title. The original "Mother's Day" is an extremely low-budgeted and trashy production from the infamous Troma Studios. That film is obscure and totally insignificant, but at least the basic premise shows enough potential to entertain audiences even 30 years later. I really wished this is how horror remakes were usually handled. There's absolutely no necessity to recycle near-perfect classics such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "The Fog". We need more directors who dig up forgotten gems and unleash an updated and vastly superior version!

"Mother's Day" basically your average thriller about a bunch of people getting home jacked and then subsequently submitted to humiliation, torture and emotional agony. The difference here, however, lies with the entire cast of characters. The homejackers are a totally unseen kind of dysfunctional family and yet the victims are often even more antipathetic. You know, the type of obnoxious and cowardly people prepared to sacrifice their so-called friends in order to save themselves. On the same night a tornado is about to pass through the area and cause a lot of damage, three brothers are on the lam after a failed bank robbery. The youngest one has a lethal bullet wound in his stomach and the three seek shelter in their nearby parental house. Unfortunately, their mother and sister were evicted a couple of months earlier and the house now belongs to Dan and Beth Sohapi, who're just having their friends over for a party. The Koffin brothers take the entire bunch hostage, but then their mommy arrives… Mother Koffin is an intelligent and sophisticated mature woman but, as to be expected, also a deeply disturbed and dangerous psychopath. The homejackers will not hesitate to kill, but the large amount of lies and deceits between the owners and their guests threatens to destroy them even sooner.

"Mother's Day" is an exciting and occasionally even suspenseful horror tale full of gruesome torture/murder sequences and pitch black humor. It has to be said that, with a running time of 112 minutes, the film is a tad overlong and suffers from a few tedious moments near the finale. By that time, even the remarks and behavioral ticks of the mother are becoming a bit derivative. Speaking of which, the titular role means an awesome comeback for early 90's vixen Rebecca De Mornay. She was hot in that period thanks to popular thrillers like "Guilty as Sin", "Never Talk to Strangers" and especially "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" in which she already portrayed a lunatic nanny. De Mornay hasn't starred in anything significant in nearly 15 years, but now she's back and she looks more ravishing than ever. "Mother's Day" contains numerous bloody and hard-to-stomach images, including the eerie intro set in a hospital and a couple of excruciatingly painful confrontations between victims and kidnappers, so it will definitely be popular amongst young horror fanatics. The film does lack that typically raw and brutal edge, but you can hardly blame Darren Lynn Bousman for that, because true exploitation films are nearly impossible to come by these days. As stated before, this is the second film in which the young director showcases his exceptionally talented skills. This and particularly "Repo! The Genetic Opera" are really cool movies and I hope Bousman doesn't return to the long-extinct "Saw" series.

Returning to their home like normal following a botched bank robbery, a group of criminals begin to terrorize and torment the new owners for the money they believe is being hidden away from them, forcing them into a deadly battle to escape.

Hyper-stylized remake that has a lot of rather poor points rather detrimental in nature. The most obvious is the film's extremely long running time which has a lot of extra time in useless scenes or subplots that drag the film's running time out, from the useless antics of the group out on the errands to the different failed escape attempts as the group bickers and complains about everything, leaving this one exceedingly long. Another rather big problem is the stupidity of the villains, since not only do they fail to keep a check on the group but the whole manner of stumbling into the situation is lazy and feels way too contrived, as well as denigrating into a typical Torture Film routine to deliver the majority of it's scares. While the big confrontations are rewarding action scenes and there's plenty of gore to be had, it's too flawed to overcome them.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

I had a feel when she arrived in the film of Hand That Rocks The Cradle flashbacks. Rebecca De Mornay has that vibe, that ominous character development to which she is mesmerizing on the screen. The film sounds like it would be an epic fail but is a very good suspense, thriller and drama.

The plot is pretty original as a couple are having a birthday party with friends and they are in a sound proof basement. Upstairs three men enter one which is wounded. It comes across this used to be their childhood home. These men are criminals as we find out and in comes MOTHER. The ferocity, soul stealing vibe we get from mother is critical for the film to capture the plot.

The acting was very well done and two in particular Patrick John Flueger (Ike) and Warren Kole (Addley) were very sadistic and extremely well portrayed. Jaime King (Beth) was pretty solid in her own right.

I give this film a solid 7 out of 10 for it's writing, plot and decent acting.