Worst2First: Bad Moms and Good Moms in Horror

 

Worst2First:
Bad Moms and Good Moms in Horror

When you think of horror cinema, the issue of family values probably doesn't strike at the top of your list - but throughout horror history the concept of family is often intertwined with its themes of murder, mayhem, and carnage. In honor of Mother's Day, I take a look at my five best "bad moms" in horror cinema, as well as my five best "good moms" in horror cinema as well.

**THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!**

BAD MOMS

#5

Braindead
Vera Cosgrove

Before "Lord of the Rings," Peter Jackson was known for his off-the-wall bloody gory horror/comedy "Braindead" (also known as "Dead Alive"). The film featured a shy, reclusive man named Lionel Cosgrove who lived with his elderly, overbearing mother Vera, and she held a vice-like grip on every aspect of his life. So when he starts dating Paquita, Vera does everything she can to prevent him from being happy - resulting in her getting bit by a Sumarian rat-monkey which turns her into a zombie. Yet even in death, she manages to control Lionel's life, leading to an intense finale filled with blood, guts, and a whole new use for a lawnmower you'd never expect.

#4

Black Swan
Erica Sayers

Giving the title "helicopter parent" a new name, Erica Sayers in "Black Swan" is the consummate overbearing mother - a former ballerina who had to give up her dream when she became pregnant with young Nina Sayers. Having to abandon her dream for her child, Erica pushes Nina (played by Natalie Portman in her Oscar-winning role) to become the ballerina she wished she was, and to live vicariously through Nina's life, leading to Nina suffering from severe mental distress that spirals into deep darkness - definitely not Mother of the Year.

#3

Hereditary
Annie Graham

One of the biggest travesties in modern cinema was that Toni Collette wasn't Oscar-nominated for her compelling, powerful, and unforgettable role as Annie Graham in Ari Aster's film debut "Hereditary." Despite Annie's mother serving as the main unseen villain in the film, Annie does no favors to herself in how she treats her son, Peter (played brilliantly by Alex Wolff), even though she could possibly be forgiven since she's going through the double trauma of her mother's death followed by her youngest daughter's unexpected demise, but it's still no excuse as to how she treats Peter. The dinner scene alone should've cemented Collette's award, but I guess the Academy still tends to overlook horror films - and if you see her performance, you'll understand why she's one bad mom.

#2

Carrie
Margaret White

Any child whose parents were devoutly religious probably can sympathize with Sissy Spacek's Carrie White, a young girl who's terribly shy and awkward due to her overly zealous religious mother Margaret, who punishes Carrie for every type of sin imaginable. When Carrie has her first period, her mother thinks it's a sin, and it's this trauma that unleashes Carrie's telekinetic powers - but it's the least amount of torture she faces from her mother, which also includes time in the "prayer closet" and constant beatings - both physically and mentally. Both Spacek and Piper Laurie earned Oscar nominations for their roles, and Laurie's mother Margaret easily goes down as one of cinema's - horror or otherwise - worst mothers in this Stephen King-novel adaptation.

#1

Psycho
Norma Bates

No "bad moms" list could not include the ultimate bad momma, Norma Bates, from Alfred Hitchcock's masterful film "Psycho." Even though she was never alive in the film, her abuse was well-known in her son Norman, who's the poster child for "Momma's Boy." Anthony Perkins gives a compelling performance as a man traumatized by the torture his mother bestowed upon him (that's made all the more apparent in the acclaimed television series "Bates Motel," featuring Vera Farmiga as Norma) so much so that we think his mother really is the killer - before it's revealed that it's been Norman all along, suffering from dissociative identity disorder from the mental break he suffered at the hands of his mother.

GOOD MOMS

#5

Cujo
Donna Trenton

Nothing makes a doting mother go full "Momma Bear Mode" than when her child's life is threatened, and she'll stop at nothing to protect them. Dee Wallace plays Donna Trenton in the Stephen King-novel adapted film "Cujo," and she proves that there's nothing more powerful than a mother's love. When she and her young son are trapped in their broken down car with a rabid Saint Bernard prowling them, she has to take matters into her own hands before they die of heat stroke, and even at the cost of her own life she sets out to take down the rabid beast in the name of her son.

#4

Poltergeist
Diane Freeling

Speaking of "Momma Bear Mode," I think anyone would want a mother like Diane Freeling, who would literally go to a different dimension to save her child. JoBeth Williams plays Diane Freeling in the Stephen Spielberg-produced iconic horror masterpiece "Poltergeist," which finds the Freeling family being tormented by the souls of the damned in their new home. When the youngest Freeling child is taken to another dimension, Diane wastes no time in tying a rope around her waist and entering the dimension to bring her back. If that isn't motherly devotion, I don't know what is.

#3

Friday the 13th
Pamela Voorhees

Speaking of a mother's devotion, nothing says "I love you" than getting revenge against those rambunctious horny teenagers who let your only child drown at camp. Although everyone associates Jason Voorhees with being the killer in the "Friday the 13th" series, it's actually his mother, Pamela (played perfectly by the late, great Betsy Palmer), who did the killing in the first film. After Jason (a young child at the time) drowns at camp while the counselors were making love, Pamela (a cook at the camp) dispatches the horny teens and makes sure the camp is never re-opened. Of course, it is, and she has to return to Camp Crystal Lake to make sure the legacy of Jason continues, and that no other mother would go through the horrors she had to endure - the loss of her only child (although in "Jason Goes to Hell" it's revealed that she also had a daughter, but oh well).

#2

Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary Woodhouse

When you hear someone say that your child is the "spawn of Satan," it's probably meant facetiously, but not in the case of Rosemary Woodhouse. Mia Farrow's iconic performance in Roman Polanski's memorable horror epic "Rosemary's Baby" finds young Rosemary bearing the son of Satan in her womb. Despite constant mental attacks by her husband and cult neighbors, she constantly tries to do what's best for her and her child, and even though she eventually gives birth to the Son of Satan, she decides in the end to raise him and not kill him as she originally intended - showing that a mother's love goes beyond eternal damnation. 

#1

Halloween
Laurie Strode

Showing what happens after one night of terror forty years later, "Halloween" finds the franchise's heroine Laurie Strode (played perfectly by scream queen veteran Jamie Lee Curtis) living in isolation after alienating her daughter Karen after enduring the then-child to constant survival practices out of fear that her former nemesis - Michael Myers - would return to finish the job. Despite Karen's hatred for her mother's overbearing nature, Laurie is proven right when Michael escapes and returns to Haddonfield to finish what he started all those decades earlier - and thanks to Laurie's training, Karen (and her daughter Allison) are more than capable to join Laurie in taking down Michael once again.