Review of Serial Mom (1994) by Millicent H — 18 Jul 2017

John Waters' Serial Mom was not the first R-rated movie I saw, but it was the first gratuitously violent movie I ever permitted myself to watch. Upon viewing the gore, I felt a sickly sensation-a feeling of genuine human exploitation; I internally grieved over the fictitious dead person and felt some sort of vicarious pain.

While of course the movie will be remembered, sort of, as a B-flick satire on suburban double lives, I will always remember it as a coming of age moment. The vulgarity, the violence, only a glimpse of sex (the whole reason I watched it sadly) really scarred me and taught me that violence is the language of the impactful and emotionally rousing author.