Serial Mom

This movie was offensive, vulgar, shocking, and yes, mean spirited. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't that was John Waters is all about? Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston do a wonderful job of overacting (badly) in classic Waters fashion. Liver on a fireplace poker? Turner as June Cleaver making obscene and threatening phone calls? Juror 8 (Patty Hearst) wearing white shoes after Labor Day? How can you not love it? This movie ranks up there with Citizen Ruth or Heathers as one of the best black comedies ever. And it also seems to have given some inspiration to Natural Born Killers, the finest of the genre. (Although not nearly as easy to stomach.)

It gets more hilarious and better every time I think about it. The prank call scenes deserve to be more iconic than they are, they're so freaking hysterical. For a comedy this movie is hilarious and for a thriller, it's genuinely thrilling. I really don't understand the low ratings of this one, especially on IMDB, did people going expecting something different from John Waters? But I digress.

In terms of performances, Kathleen Turner is the perfect star to be in a John Water vehicle. It makes me sad to see her fall out of the limelight because every movie I've seen with her, she's easily been the best part, she is so charismatic and she is perfectly cast in this movie.

In addition, the satirical elements of modern mass obsession with real crime stories couldn't be more apt and wonderfully woven into the story. It really adds to the story, and keeps it from just being a great comedy.

And speaking of obsession with real crime stories, I do wonder what John Waters thinks of the glut of Ted Bundy documentaries and movies that have come out recently.

This film won't be to everyone's liking, but is certainly an all-time favorite of mine. Only a film like this can combine so many great elements into one entertaining movie.

Kathleen Turner is just purely brilliant as sweet mother Beverly Sutphin, who would look more at home in a show like Bewitched. However, we soon learn that she's not all that she seems. I love any movie that takes a classic element (in this case the innocent housewife) and completely turns it on its head.

And so the film leads us on a journey through Beverly Sutphin's life and motivations. The film grabs on, and doesn't let go, keeping the pace until the very last scene.

In bad taste? Well, yes. Sick humor? Quite often. Good? Oh yes. If you have a dark sense of humor, don't miss it for the world.

An uproariously witty satire on "petty" bourgeois American values, John Waters brings his own distinctive madness to the screen by focussing on cardboard cut-out caricatures of pop culture Americana.

Turning his outrageous gaze on an archetypally perfect housewife and mother from the Baltimore suburbs in Maryland, supportive to her loving husband and teenage kids and possessing a real tlent for cooking, it appears that she is everything a stable, hard-working business man could want. However, there is a slight catch. She is also a serial killer.

Mom's tendency to take bloody revenge on any poor neighbouring housewife who fails to observe her rigid socially acceptable guidelines, like not recycling rubbish or driving too fast, is so barmy you are sure to find it absurdly and darkly funny. Kathleen Turner, alternating between dizzy, unquestioning devotion to her family and clinically cool, yet psychotic anger to offending neighbours, either appears to possess a martyr's yellow halo above her head, denoting divine lightness and freshness, or a focussed smile as she carefully contemplates her next victim.

If you are on the lookout for some perfectly vibrant, yet malicious black comedy, subscribe to "Serial Mom", one of the most ruthless, patronising skits on good manners and nosey, voyeuristic neighbours ever to hit the screen. If you like Waters' latest irreverent venture into visceral, cutting black humour, then get all his other movies, because they are all even more extreme and grotesque - "Pink Flamingos", "Hairspray", "Cry Baby" - all kitschy, underrated classics in their own right.

I saw Serial Mom for the first time as a fairly young kid, and thought it was pretty good. I've just seen it for the first time as an adult, and it turns out that I'd forgotten just how good this film really is! It's certainly not to everyone's taste, and if you can't handle high camp, you definitely don't want to see this; but if you like your films wild and wicked, Serial Mom is a treat indeed! The film follows a slasher plot line, but it's clear that director John Waters didn't want to merely make a slash flick. The film is a parody of life as a housewife, the media and modern society in general; with a heavy dosage of sick humour and a very unique mean streak running throughout. Serial Mom is the sort of film that puts a smile on your face, and it follows the story of a not quite so normal American mother. While her fellow housewives are cooking dinner and cleaning the house, Beverly R. Sutphin is out dispatching people that have got on hers and her family's nerves in a variety of nasty, yet hilarious, ways. Her kids think it's cool, and her husband is duly worried...

Kathleen Turner takes the lead role, and does an excellent job of performing in a serious, yet jokey way; which does the film no end of favours on the parody front. She looks the part, acts the part...and really, I cant think of a better middle-aged actress to take the lead in this film. The support cast, which includes Matthew Lillard and Ricki Lake, is good; but it's the director that's the real star of the show. John Waters has made a name for himself by creating odd and twisted films, and although I haven't seen a great deal of them; Serial Mom is his best as far as I'm concerned. It's one of those films that constantly make you laugh (providing you've got a sick sense of humour), while poking fun at society and offending all the right people all at once! I love originality in movies, and this really is one unique film. The nineties saw the release of lots of obscure social commentaries that were lost under films like Schindler's List and Fight Club, and Serial Mom, along with Francois Ozon's 'Sitcom', is one of the best 'under the radar' films of the decade. It's not a film that everyone will like, but everyone should see it just in case!