Monday, May 9, 2016

Rare Holiday Flix: Mom (1991)

What a lovely day for Cannibalism!  Today's Film is Mom, a 1991 Horror Film from MGM.  They love it so much that they slapped their Logo on the whole Film.  Well...that or wherever the original source is.  While this one is a bit late, it is still a Mother's Day Film.  It tells the tale of a man and his Mother...and the creature that transforms her into a flesh-eating creature.  While I avoided Flesh Eating Mothers this year, I still ended up with the singular version!  Brion James is here to put the Plot into motion, which is kind of what he's always here for, right?  After taking in the wrong guy to rent a Room, our titular character ends up becoming a Monster.  Was Momster taken?  After all, we had a Manster, so why not?  This is an odd one, to say the least.  The Director only has one Writing and Directing Credit (this one), but he has many other Editor ones- including Scanner Cop II, Warlords from Hell and Baby Einstein: Discovering Shapes. Thanks again, IMDB!
In the cold open, a lady is waiting for the Bus to L.A. when she meets James...who kills her.
After the Opening Credits, he shows up at the title character's house to rent a room.  Her son is a Reporter that is covering the bloody killings, which is surely not related to that opening Scene.
She accidentally sees his yellow eyes (jaundice?) and he bites her, which is 'hilariously' intercut with someone chopping meat.
She's not dead- she's just now a monster.  She tries to hide this from her son (naturally), but he eventually finds out.
James tells the son about what happened, but doesn't actually tell us what he is.  "Werewolves, Vampires, flesh-eaters- it's all the same."

Just for that, I'm glad that they burned you to death just now.
Unfortunately, the son is now left with a Momster that he must try to control and/or cure.  No luck so far...
He takes a Hooker home to feed to Mom, but has second thoughts...so the Hooker just gets herself killed on her own.  Who said that there are no good roles for Women?
Can the son keep the Momster under control until he finds a cure?!?
Nope.  The Police eventually show up and she burns herself to death to stop her own killings.  The End.
Damn.  What an odd one.  It is billed as a Dark Comedy, with a heavy emphasis on the dark.  It certainly has some of that.  People are gutted, have their throats ripped out, get burned alive and got shot.  As far as the Comedy goes, there's...not as much as I was expecting.  Was it just the inherent nature of making an old lady into a Monster?  If so, it is not enough.  Brion James is fun while he's here, playing both sinister and funny.  Sadly, he doesn't make it past the first 30 minutes- oh well.  The make-up effects are good, so I have no complaints about them.  The Tone is pretty bleak for a so-called Comedy.  It is a pretty good Story and the Acting is solid- again, no complaints.  All in all, it works as a pretty good Horror-Drama with some mild Comedy elements.  It is pretty rare, so like-minded people should check it out.  Now for some light reading...
Next up, some random Film that strikes my fancy.  Why tease properly when I can do it vaguely?  Stay tuned...

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