We View the New 'Mother's Day' Footage
Director Darren Lynn Bousman appeared on the "Troma Troma Troma" panel at this weekend's Comic-Con, and unveiled a startling, exclusive new clip from his upcoming Mother's Day (a reimagined take on the classic Troma film). The filmmaker had recently finished editing his latest work, and proudly screened this first look at footage for a captivated and receptive crowd of fans. Check out our description of, and reaction to, what we saw after the jump.
In the scene Bousman screened, Mother, the matriarch of the Koffin family (played by Rebecca De Mornay), psychologically torments a bound Daniel Sohapi (played by Frank Grillo) -- whose home she's invaded after having once lived there -- with the memory of his little boy. Sohapi's child, we learn, was killed by a car one day when the man failed to pay attention to him. Mother sets fire to a picture of the child, causing a physical blaze to match the mental one she's ignited. As Sohapi cries out, she bathes the photo in alcohol, covering it in flames. Then, to complete the onslaught of madness, Mother has one of her own sons pour alcohol on Sohapi's lady, who – alongside several other hostages – is bound beside him. Sohapi's screams grow deafening as the younger Koffin sets fire to the woman's hair using the still-flaming photo of Sohapi's son… A quick montage of footage was then shown, featuring the film's familiar cast of genre veterans – including True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll, The 4400's Shawn Ashmore, Battlestar Galactica's Kandyse McClure, My Bloody Valentine's Jaime King, and Repo! The Genetic Opera's Alexa Vega.
What impressed me the most about this footage was that Bousman has found a sharp psychological counterpoint to the diabolical physical threats of his Saw movies. And in De Mornay he has the perfect screen villain, one as nefarious as Jigsaw but possessing far deeper emotions. As she demonstrated in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, De Mornay knows how to perfectly pace and calibrate a performance, slowly, subtly building her character's rage from something we recognize within ourselves to that of a monster all the more chilling for its welcoming outward appearance. In fact, all the film's performances appear rooted in a reality that may surprise fans of Bousman's larger-than-life Repo! but should impress nonetheless. Mother's Day is on the short list of thrillers I'm most excited about this year. As it looks to inject fresh wit and insight into the genre, and in so doing render it even more terrifying.
