Even if you have fond memories of Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle some 20 years ago, you may be surprised when, a third of the way through this sado epic, she enters as another psychopathic matriarch.
Here is a mom who's keen on blood-letting. De Mornay carries her years well and plays her pathological character with a quiet intensity that is all the better for never going over the top. At one point she quietly sips a cup of tea as she instructs one of her sons to pour petrol over her gagged prisoners.
Her beloved boys, who each take her word as law, are bank robbers running from the police, holed up in the Kansas house in which they once lived before foreclosure meant a yuppie couple could buy it.
The couple are having a party when the boys burst in and you can imagine what happens next when I tell you that Darren Lynn Bousman, maker of two of the Saw series, is the director.
The fugitives want money in order to escape and are determined to squeeze it out of the terrified party-goers come what may. And when mother hoves into view, politely suggesting death, torture and the rest, they know they are in for it.
It's violent, slightly hysterical and far too long and, with the exception of De Mornay (who looks a cut above her sweaty offspring in social as well as acting class), is hardly worth seeking out. You have to like this sort of thing, and I don't.
Mother's Day
Cert: 18
