"No one can escape on Mother's Day... because Mother's Day never ends."
— Tagline
Mother's Day is a 1980 horror film brought to you by the folks at Troma.
Three female friends on their annual reunion head to the Pine Barrens, unaware that the area's the stomping grounds for murderous siblings Ike and Addley, and their psychopathic mother who drives them to commit their violent deeds.
It received a rather loose remake in 2010, which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Repo! The Genetic Opera).
The original film contains examples of the following tropes:
- Bolivian Army Ending: The two remaining heroes dispatch Mother, Ike, and Addley, however, they soon run into Queenie in the woods... Cue credits.
- Bound and Gagged: Our heroines. However Abbey and Trina don't accept their fates and free themselves while Jackie is being tortured.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: The matriarch of the clan has a paranoid fear that her sister, Queenie, still roams the woods, and is afraid of being alone as a result, insisting that the boys never leave. At the end of the film, after the girls have defeated Ike, Addy, and their mother, they encounter Queenie...
- Don't Go in the Woods: The girls' ordeal starts with them hiking into the woods to go camping. Later, they're being chased through those woods by lunatics.
- Foreshadowing: By the bucketload.
- Gorn: Also by the bucketload.
- Groin Attack: Delivered to Addley via hatchet. Ouch.
- Head Smashes Screen: One of the main antagonists gets a TV set crashed on his head through the base, his screaming head visible through its screen as he staggers around. Once he finally throws it off, he collapses, smoke leaving the lips of his fried face.
- Machete Mayhem: One is used to deadly effect at the beginning of the film against the hippies.
- Meaningful Echo: "I'm a sick woman!"
- Off with His Head!: The very first kill in the film, coupled with Machete Mayhem.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Ike and Addley.
- Rape and Revenge: After Jackie is assaulted and dies of her injuries, Abbey and Trina come back for revenge.
The 2010 remake contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Mother, Addley, Ike are still brutal criminals and subject the protagonists through a heinous ordeal. However their villainous actions are not done for sadistic pleasure (well mostly), just extreme unexpected circumstances.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Mother points out to the remaining house guests, the entire awful ordeal they all went though would not have happen if Beth had not lied about having the family's money which was mistakenly mailed to her. In the commentary the director even admits the family probability would have just left had they gotten their money back.
- Died on Their Birthday: This remake largely involves a birthday party that gets interrupted by a home invasion. Near the end of the story, Mother shoots and kills the birthday boy, Daniel.
- Even Evil Has Standards
- Lydia is the dutiful daughter of Mother, yet she was the only one of her children to vocally disagree with her mother's decision to give away Annette to "reward" her virgin son Johnny and the only one to try to stop it.
- Addley is easily the most violently unstable, but even he can't help being just as horrified as the rest of the captive house guests when he accidentally shotgun blasts Dave's head off.
- The Family That Slays Together: What Mother, Ike, Addley, Lydia, and Johnny ultimately are. Even if it's only in spirit and not by blood
