Mother’s Boys อย่าขวาง เธอจะทวงลูก (1993)

 

What do you get when you fill your celluloid blender with "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "The Bad Seed," "Fatal Attraction" and...are you ready?..."Kramer vs. Kramer"?

No, not "Serial Mom" with Kathleen Turner. That one doesn't open until next weekend, and besides, it's an intentional comedy.

This one is "Mother's Boys," the weirdest, campiest, most ridiculous horror film of the year so far --and that is not meant as a compliment.

Jamie Lee Curtis, who was victimized in that seminal slasher flick "Halloween" some 15 years ago-- as well as "Halloween II," "Terror Train" and "Prom Night" --does the victimizing here.

 

 

She plays Jude, the "wife/mother from hell" who returns to Los Angeles, her husband, Robert (Peter Gallagher), and their three young sons -- 12-year-old Kes (Luke Edwards), 10-year-old Michael (Colin Ward) and 6-year-old Ben (Joey Zimmerman) --after three years of gallivanting around Europe.

Obviously having seen Rebecca DeMornay's performance in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle," Curtis alternates between subtlety and over-the-top histrionics as she mutters about "her family" and then screams and swears, insisting she wants them back --all of them, including Robert.

Sensing that she has not had counseling, Robert isn't all that willing to reconcile, of course, despite the fact that he initially seems to succumb to her sexual wiles.

Meanwhile, his new girlfriend Callie (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), who is also the assistant principal at the boy's school, becomes Jude's target.

To get rid of Callie, Jude enlists the aid of her sons-- primarily Kes. To entice Michael and Ben, she gives them Gameboys. To entice Kes, she allows him to drive and then hints at incest. In the film's most exploitative and disgusting moment, Jude takes a bath in front of Kes, then stands, pointing out her Caesarean section scar, which she says is a symbol of their bond.

Oh, brother.

While screenwriters Barry Schneider and Richard Hawley apparently watched a number of thrillers for inspiration, director Yves Simoneau seems to have kept his eye on Brian DePalma, who, of course, settled long ago for copying Alfred Hitchcock. "Mother's Boys" is slick and boasts an attractive cast, and there are a couple of effective thrill sequences, including a well-filmed literal cliffhanger at the end. But too often Simoneau goes for cheap thrills, silly fantasy and dream sequences.

This is a pretty silly excercise in horror and isn't likely to help that sagging genre.

"Mother's Boys" is rated R for violence, gore, nudity, sexual innuendo, profanity and vulgarity.