Review of Mommy (1995) by Joey T — 12 May 2014

Melodrama about a psychotic serial-killing mother and her whiny, annoying daughter. The positives: Patty McCormack is EXTREMELY effective. She's genuinely creepy, scary, cold and horrific, turning in a solid performance. Brinke Stevens is adequate as her long-suffering, loyal sister who finally has enough. And... that's it. Everything else here is mediocre to bad.

The quality of the film is reminiscent of something one might see on Lifetime from the same period. "Mommy" has a soap opera quality to it in everything from the acting to the photography, much of which is done in close-up. That works in moderation, particularly when it involves McCormack's genuinely menacing eyes, but not so much with anyone else in the film. The most egregiously bad thing here, though, is the performance of child actress Rachel Lemieux. She's annoying, whiny and flat at every turn... so much so that the viewer may be tempted to root for her crazy mother in the film's climactic junkyard scene. That itself features a terrible cop-out of an ending that also seems like it would be more at home in a soap opera than a psychological thriller/horror film.

The other saving grace this flick has is some of the unintended humor that comes from a lack of internal consistency and continuity. Watch carefully as articles of clothing appear to change mid-scene, as blood stains appear and disappear, and as supposedly dead bodies change positions repeatedly between shots. Amazing!

If you want to see an actress depicting a completely frightening psycho to perfection, check this flick out and fast-forward past any scene in which Patty McCormack isn't featured on screen. That's the only reason to bother with this one.