Moms are the best.  They are the only ones who are there for you in good times and bad. Of course, this is HorrorBuzz and we honor our mom’s in a very particular way by remembering cinema’s scariest moms. While some moms are loving, they may not be the best caregivers.  While they may be protective, they may not always be ethical.

With a listing of five of our favorite, cringe-inducing mothers from the history of cinema. Some on the list were in horror films, some were just horrifying. The point is they loved us and we loved them.

Big Edie (Grey Gardens)

In the landmark documentary, Grey Gardens, the Maysleses Brothers captured a disturbing relationship between mother and daughter. Edith Bouvier Beale, aka Little Edie, was being held captive in a sense of duty  towards her domineering mother, Edith Ewing Beale, aka Big Edie. The women occupied two rooms of a sprawling dilapidated, 28- room mansion in the Hamptons. ”You’ve had enough fun in your life,” she tells her daughter, who continues to express her desire to leave, to move back to New York City. Little Edie laments, ” I’ve been a subterranean prisoner here for 20 years.”

Despite Big Edie’s relentless criticisms and control, she loved her daughter very much.

Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest)

Faye Dunaway has famously refused to discuss this deliciously campy portrayal. Say it with me, “NO WIRE HANGERS!” Despite that, we simply cannot get enough of this capricious monster with a penchant for cleanliness.  The characterization of Joan Crawford in the film, Mommie Dearest, is the stuff of nightmares.  She straps her children into bed at night, for their safety of course, she invades their room at night in Kabuki-style moisturizing cream, invading their closet for sub-par hangers, and she only allows them one Christmas present a year.  Did we neglect to mention the midnight gardening sessions?    At the core of it all, Joan wanted nothing but the very best for her children. Adopted, the kids were in serious danger of taking things for granted and assuming that they were loved. Ms. Crawford nips that in the bud by keeping them, and the audience for that matter, terrified at what she might do next.

Mother (Mother’s Day)

Mother’s Day’s Mother Kaufman inspired an entire film of wonderful nastiness.  Screenwriter, Michael Varrati offered his thoughts on this early Troma film thusly…

“I absolutely adore Mother’s Day. It’s vicious, cruel, and a perfect example of drive-in era exploitation cinema executed in a masterfully sleazy way. Furthermore, it’s truly the prototypical Troma film. When Mother’s Day was released, The Toxic Avenger was still about four years away and the company was mostly known for sex comedies like Waitress and Stuck on You! I think the glimmer of the punk rock cinematic underground the company was to become was still forming, and I definitely think Mother’s Day helped push it in that direction. It’s the kind of slasher we don’t really get anymore. It’s dirty and unforgiving…and there’s something about it that makes you feel like you’re seeing something that you really shouldn’t be watching. Who doesn’t love that wicked mother and her devoted sons? It’s delish and devilish.

There’s no question that Lloyd Kaufman has cemented his place as a cult filmmaker that will be remember for all time, in addition to creating Toxie and directing a number of bad ass beloved favorites, his championing of indie cinema is pretty on record. The fact that Lloyd’s brother Charles was the writer and director of Mother’s Day just makes the whole story all the more remarkable to me. I mean, it’s rare to be direct one film in your lifetime that’s considered a cult classic. But, to not only have a number of them under your belt…and have someone else in the family who has done one too? What are the chances? I don’t know what was going on in the Kaufman house while those boys were growing up, but the cult genes certainly are strong. Actually, I bet Mother Kaufman was a force to be reckoned with. Ha ha.

…and let’s talk about Charles for a moment: I think Charles Kaufman is an exceptional filmmaker and underrated in the pantheon of drive-in and exploitation greats. Mother’s Day is just such an experience of grit and gore, it required a filmmaker with as much ferocity behind the camera as the film needed in front. I think he did exceptional things with this movie, and I would really truly love if he came back to direct something new.

Fun fact: Charles now runs a really yummy bakery in San Diego called Bread & Cie (if you’re there for ComicCon, stop in, get a cookie, tell ‘em I sent ya). In my small cameo in Lloyd’s Return to Nuke ‘Em High, I’m wearing a Bread & Cie shirt. I’m happy that I was the one who got to give an in-universe nod to both Charles and his Mother’s Day legacy.”

Mrs. Voorhees (Friday the 13th)

It’s funny to think that, in the beginning, there was no Jason, there was only Mrs. Voorhees. Yes the first Friday the 13th film features Jason as the sad victim of a drowning accident on account of neglectful camp counselors.  (Spoiler Alert) In fact, Jason didn’t kill a single person in the first film, it was all his mother. Instead of working to keep the camp closed, or maybe even becoming a member of the staff in order to train counsellors, or train them to handle emergencies, she does what any mom would do and begins murdering people. Mrs. Voorhees is the mom that never forgets… ever.

Norma Bates (Psycho)

A boy’s best friend is his mother. That is, according to Norman Bates.  The overbearing matriarch of the roadside inn, Norma Bates was a nasty piece of work. Norma Bates was a domineering (there’s that lovely quality again) mother who brainwashed her only son, Norman, into believing that all sex and physical attraction was sinful, punishable by death.

You see, while young Norman was growing up, Norma began dating a man named Joe Considine. He convinces her to sell farmland she owned and to open a small motel near Fairvale, California. After learning that his mother plans to marry this Joe fellow,  Norman became jealous and poisoned them both with strychnine.

Norman, who is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, disinters Norma’s corpse from her grave and mummifies it. He then begins talking to it, creating a life for it.  Yes, the love of a son for his mother can keep the memory alive, can’t it?

Yes, mothers can be insane, they may embarrass us, they may ruin our lives, but dammit, they do love us. Thanks mom. You are the person that picks us up, the person that loves us unconditionally, the one that reminds us that there will always be someone that loves us. Happy Mother’s Day everyone!