Mother's Day

Once upon a time, Rebecca De Mornay was a critically fêted actress who never got the parts her talent deserved – the serenely deranged nanny in 1992’s ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’ was the best of them. A career slowdown in recent years brings her to this sorry state of affairs, wheeled in to bring a touch of class to a tawdry shocker as a psychotic matriarch whose beastly sons are unleashing havoc on a suburban home. Turns out it’s the former residence of these white-trash crims, so they’ve come to collect their stashed loot, which is bad news for the couple (Jaime King, Frank Grillo) holding a housewarming party at the same time. De Mornay’s arrival, just as her boys are set to do their worst to winkle out the cash, brings a promise of restored sanity, but mother’s twisted morals soon pose a chilling threat of their own.

Given that director Darren Lyn Bousman delivered three ‘Saw’ sequels, one expects some lingering over the characters’ sufferings, and the grisly highlights are delivered with heartless proficiency. Since the victims turn out to be a decidedly unsympathetic lot of schemers, backbiters and idiots, however, it’s hard to care either way, so the whole sorry affair becomes an exercise in lining up and toying with the victims. All very unedifying, yet De Mornay’s wide-eyed presence proves just as painful, spewing out the script’s clunkily ironic homilies for all the world like she’s channelling Faye Dunaway channelling Joan Crawford in ‘Mommie Dearest’. Excruciatingly misguided.