MOMMY: 25TH ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE FEATURE (1995-1997) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MAX ALLAN COLLINS / STARRING: PATTY MCCORMACK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US)
Jessica Ann’s Mommy is determined to see her daughter get the appreciation she deserves, even if it means murdering the school principal when the ‘Student of the Year’ award is given to another pupil. But the fact that Mommy leaves the scene of the crime looking so cool, calm and collected tells you everything you need to know. She’s done this before, she’ll do it again, and when Jessica Ann finds out just how psychotic her Mommy is, she’ll be in line for something much more lethal than a spanking. Still, as the body count rises it doesn’t seem as if anyone – even the hard-boiled cop who’s watching Mommy like a hawk – will be able to stop her. Mommy’s meaner than a junk yard dog, and she’s literally about to prove it.
The second film in this collection, Mommy’s Day, is possibly even more insane. Now Mommy’s back but, thanks to an anti-psychotic arm implant, she’s been considerably declawed. All she wants to do is be reunited with her daughter and lead a normal, law-abiding life. Or that’s what she says, anyway. Meanwhile, the court won’t let Mommy and Jessica Ann have contact, and victims are beginning to stack up with Mommy’s M.O. written all over them. What’s a Mommy to do when she pleads her innocence and no-one believes her? Let’s put it this way – it takes more than a restraining order and anti-psychotic medication to keep a good Mommy down.
If there’s a moral to these movies, it’s possibly this: if you don’t think Mommy knows best, you’d better not tell her.
As individual movies, Mommy and Mommy’s Day are exactly what they were designed to be; two straight-to-video thrillers that are fun to watch but don’t add up to the sum of the talent involved. Of the pair, Mommy’s Day is the most entertaining because its ‘is she/isn’t she’ concept at least tries to keep the audience guessing. The problem with Mommy Pt.1 is that we know Mommy’s a killer from the get-go, so it’s just a matter of how long it takes to bring her to justice. The performances (especially Patty McCormick as Mommy, The Exorcist’s Jason Miller as the cop, and a brief cameo from Star Trek’s Majel Barrett) are stronger than the material they’re given, and occasionally suffer because of it. These aren’t the psycho-thrillers the clunky box art suggests, and viewers who are looking for jump scares and gore should search elsewhere. Mommy and Mommy’s Day are black comedies through-and-through, produced on an extremely low budget that was bolstered by the support of the filmmaker’s local community. Director/writer Max Allan Collins’ ambition should be applauded, and it’s no surprise that his list of writing credits (including Road to Perdition) is so vast because he obviously threw himself into the Mommy series with a passion, as did (if the special features are anything to go by) all his cast and crew. It’s just a shame that VCI didn’t have as much passion when they produced this Region 1 3-disc set, because the transfers are only a few steps above watching the films on their original home video. Still, both films are well worth a spin if you’ve got a hankering for mid-1990’s wing-and-a-prayer filmmaking and want to get to know the contrast and brightness settings on your TV a little better.
