Serial Mother

Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) seems to be a typical Betty Crocker suburban housewife. Unfortunately, people are dropping like flies around her! Could this perfect mom be a serial killer?

"Serial Mom" is a ridiculously charming and clever film that never really received the credit it deserved. It is John Waters' best mainstream film, and its tongue-in-cheek portrayal of suburbia, domesticity, the media, and conventional gender roles is delightfully subversive. Kathleen Turner was criminally underrated--this was her best performance to date. The dialogue is hilarious, the murders are wickedly funny, and the overall atmosphere of the film is disturbingly bright and shiny. Co-stars Waters regulars Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, and features a dynamite cameo by grunge goddesses L7. My Rating: 9/10

An uproariously witty satire on "petty" bourgeois American values, John Waters brings his own distinctive madness to the screen by focussing on cardboard cut-out caricatures of pop culture Americana.

Turning his outrageous gaze on an archetypally perfect housewife and mother from the Baltimore suburbs in Maryland, supportive to her loving husband and teenage kids and possessing a real tlent for cooking, it appears that she is everything a stable, hard-working business man could want. However, there is a slight catch. She is also a serial killer.

Mom's tendency to take bloody revenge on any poor neighbouring housewife who fails to observe her rigid socially acceptable guidelines, like not recycling rubbish or driving too fast, is so barmy you are sure to find it absurdly and darkly funny. Kathleen Turner, alternating between dizzy, unquestioning devotion to her family and clinically cool, yet psychotic anger to offending neighbours, either appears to possess a martyr's yellow halo above her head, denoting divine lightness and freshness, or a focussed smile as she carefully contemplates her next victim.

If you are on the lookout for some perfectly vibrant, yet malicious black comedy, subscribe to "Serial Mom", one of the most ruthless, patronising skits on good manners and nosey, voyeuristic neighbours ever to hit the screen. If you like Waters' latest irreverent venture into visceral, cutting black humour, then get all his other movies, because they are all even more extreme and grotesque - "Pink Flamingos", "Hairspray", "Cry Baby" - all kitschy, underrated classics in their own right.

Imagine this: the main character is a woman called Beverly Sutphin. Her husband is a dentist and she does her best to bring up her children. In short, she is a respectable human being with the particularity of being a real stickler for good manners . Maybe, a little too respectable so that when someone speaks ill of one member of her family, Beverly is ready to kill to defend her family!

Only one filmmaker seemed designated to shot this highly entertaining black comedy: John Waters, the king of bad taste and extravagance. In "Serial Mom", most of the comical situations are structured about the two quoted characteristics. The whole is condensed in one hour and a half. You don't get bored one moment and you honestly laugh in front of all these murders. In "Serial Mom", you also recognize Waters' strong taste for bloody, gore and horror movies. Moreover, for this extraordinary director, it is the occasion to harm the model image of the American family.

All in all, a delightfully politically incorrect comedy led by a Kathleen Turner on top form.

It gets more hilarious and better every time I think about it. The prank call scenes deserve to be more iconic than they are, they're so freaking hysterical. For a comedy this movie is hilarious and for a thriller, it's genuinely thrilling. I really don't understand the low ratings of this one, especially on IMDB, did people going expecting something different from John Waters? But I digress.

In terms of performances, Kathleen Turner is the perfect star to be in a John Water vehicle. It makes me sad to see her fall out of the limelight because every movie I've seen with her, she's easily been the best part, she is so charismatic and she is perfectly cast in this movie.

In addition, the satirical elements of modern mass obsession with real crime stories couldn't be more apt and wonderfully woven into the story. It really adds to the story, and keeps it from just being a great comedy.

And speaking of obsession with real crime stories, I do wonder what John Waters thinks of the glut of Ted Bundy documentaries and movies that have come out recently.

This movie is one of the best black comedies of all time. Every scene is flawlessly funny, and of course the courtroom scene is phenominal... Kathleen Turner does not let down, I swear to god this movie rocks, especially when your intoxicated