(8/10)
First thing to note is the title is misleading - no part of this movie takes place on Mother’s Day and I
would hardly call it a massacre. That being said, I completely dug this depraved flick.
With a completely inane storyline and some of the most bizarre characters ever, this crazy flick takes
place in the south (though shot in New Jersey) and manages to make the viewer feel both icky and
amused at the same time.
After one of the most bizarre pre-credit sequences I’ve ever seen, we meet a spineless weakling and
his uptight girlfriend. They’re about to do some sexual experimenting when his dad shows up and ruins
things. Dad is a certifiable redneck nutcase who becomes creepier the more we learn about him.
Fed up with living under dad’s thumb, the weakling teenager sets off with the girlfriend and a few of
their friends on a road trip to find the mother than didn’t want him (and steal some pot from a field one
of them had seen). Shortly after arriving in a virtual ghost town, the gang decides they should play hide
and seek in the abandoned buildings which leads them to discover a dead dog, a plethora of disturbing
polaroids, and two murderous brothers.
But wait, that’s not it – from there the movie goes in a whole other direction with the surviving kids and
the identities of the killers. What could have become a very formulaic stalk and slash or (worse, torture
porn) flick jumps back into the insane black comedy it began as with pretty satisfying results.
There are many plot devices that are disturbing (particularly surrounding the father’s activities) which
never seem to come to fruition or lead to a point, but that’s ok since they do what they are required to
do - to give the film a feeling of underlying smarminess. The young cast is really quite good and the
characters are surprisingly appealing – the good guys, anyway. The bad guys are as unappealing as
necessary.
It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and the ending leaves a little bit to be desired – not
everything we’d like to have happen does happen, but that’s life. It’s just an utterly satisfying midnight
movie that never forgets it has to entertain its audience. A really good flick you won’t soon forget!
First thing to note is the title is misleading - no part of this movie takes place on Mother’s Day and I
would hardly call it a massacre. That being said, I completely dug this depraved flick.
With a completely inane storyline and some of the most bizarre characters ever, this crazy flick takes
place in the south (though shot in New Jersey) and manages to make the viewer feel both icky and
amused at the same time.
After one of the most bizarre pre-credit sequences I’ve ever seen, we meet a spineless weakling and
his uptight girlfriend. They’re about to do some sexual experimenting when his dad shows up and ruins
things. Dad is a certifiable redneck nutcase who becomes creepier the more we learn about him.
Fed up with living under dad’s thumb, the weakling teenager sets off with the girlfriend and a few of
their friends on a road trip to find the mother than didn’t want him (and steal some pot from a field one
of them had seen). Shortly after arriving in a virtual ghost town, the gang decides they should play hide
and seek in the abandoned buildings which leads them to discover a dead dog, a plethora of disturbing
polaroids, and two murderous brothers.
But wait, that’s not it – from there the movie goes in a whole other direction with the surviving kids and
the identities of the killers. What could have become a very formulaic stalk and slash or (worse, torture
porn) flick jumps back into the insane black comedy it began as with pretty satisfying results.
There are many plot devices that are disturbing (particularly surrounding the father’s activities) which
never seem to come to fruition or lead to a point, but that’s ok since they do what they are required to
do - to give the film a feeling of underlying smarminess. The young cast is really quite good and the
characters are surprisingly appealing – the good guys, anyway. The bad guys are as unappealing as
necessary.
It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and the ending leaves a little bit to be desired – not
everything we’d like to have happen does happen, but that’s life. It’s just an utterly satisfying midnight
movie that never forgets it has to entertain its audience. A really good flick you won’t soon forget!
 |
Rating;
| by Jim Haggerty |