After a botched bank robbery attempt that leaves their youngest brother teetering on the edge of death with a gaping gunshot wound, Ike (Patrick Flueger) and Addley (Warren Kole) return to their childhood home, only to discover that the house is now inhabited by a pair of new owners in the midst of a dinner party. Taking the owners and their guests hostage, the boys call for help from the only person they can trust: their mother (Rebecca De Mornay).
[pullquote_right]Mother doesn’t like liars, and actions always have consequences.[/pullquote_right]Mother arrives with younger sister Lydia (Deborah Ann Woll), and immediately takes control of the situation. An escape plan has already been formulated, and they should have plenty of money – after all, the boys have been sending weekly envelopes of cash to the house in order to take care of Mother. But when the new owners (Jaime King and Frank Grillo) deny receiving any money, things go from bad to worse. You see, Mother doesn’t like liars, and actions always have consequences.
Mother’s Day succeeds largely in part due to a captivating performance by Rebecca De Mornay. Her calm, soothing voice is in direct contrast to the sadistic commands she issues, and while the level of punishment she orders her children to inflict on their hostages is staggering, even more terrifying are the displays of sweetness and compassion, such as bringing a freshly baked cake into the basement after one of the hostages has been executed upstairs.
[pullquote_left]The level of punishment inflicted on the hostages is staggering.[/pullquote_left]Where Mother’s Day falters is in the characterization of the victims, as most of them are painted in a terribly unsympathetic light. These people are petty and selfish, with nearly everyone in the basement harboring a dark secret, and as Mother slowly begins to unravel the truth from each victim, the audience finds themselves less concerned with the welfare of the hostages, and more inclined to root for the criminals.
The video transfer on the disc is something of a mixed bag. A minor amount of noise is present in some scenes, and while detail is good, many of the interior shots seem overly saturated. The audio mix doesn’t fare much better, with the rear channels rarely being utilized to their full potential, although it’s worth noting that dialogue remains crisp throughout and is never obscured by the film’s score. The only extra is an audio commentary with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor Shawn Ashmore, which features a few amusing anecdotes and not much else.
[pullquote_right]Rebecca De Mornay is a breath of fresh air for the genre.[/pullquote_right]As a loose remake of the 1980 film of the same name, Mother’s Day is superior to the original version in every conceivable way. Bousman has put a darker spin on the home invasion thriller, and his chief antagonist is a breath of fresh air for a genre that has long been in need of a deadly new villain to scare the hell out of us.