As he disclosed: “In the old days, I wanted to make people nervous about what they were laughing at. With the obvious move toward the mainstream, Waters began to lose the subversive sensibility that had marked his underground films. Set in the l950s, “Parents” stars Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt as the ideal conformist American parents, defined by only one “minor” flaw, cannibalism. “Serial Mom” is not as macabre as the deliciously nasty “Parents,” a horror comedy that coincidentally was released earlier that year.
(This is also the way that Carmen Maura kills her husband in Almodovar’s “What Have I Done to Deserve It?”)
Jensen to her home, and when the woman sings along to “Tomorrow” from the musical “Annie,” Beverly bludgeons her to death with a leg of lamb. Jensen, complaining to Chip about fees for failing to rewind her tape-she calls him “the son of a psycho.” Beverly follows Mrs. Hiding from the police at her son’s video store, Beverly overhears a customer, Mrs. Ironically, the sermon that day is “Capital Punishment and You.” The service ends when a strange sound causes panic. On Sundance at church, the Sutphins are met with suspicion. When Betty Sterner (Kathy Fannon) opens the closet, Beverly stabs her with scissors, and then topples an air conditioner onto her husband, Ralph (Doug Roberts).Įugene uncovers disturbing items under their mattress, such as an autographed photo by Richard Speck, sent to Beverly from prison, audiotape of Ted Bundy (voiced by John Waters), and scrapbook of clippings of Jonestown and Charles Manson. The Sterners get killed at their house, while daring to have a chicken dinner–Beverly is an avid bird watcher. When Misty is upset for getting stood up by her date, Carl Pageant (Lonnie Horsey), and Beverly spots him with another girl (Traci Lords), she impales him with a fireplace poker. Questioning the strength of the family unit, Stubbins recommends therapy for Chip, and Beverly, terribly offended, sees no choice but to run him over. Stubbins (John Badila), the math teacher, criticizes her son’s fascination with violent horror films. The first murder Beverly commits occurs after attending a PTA meeting, in which Mr. It turns out Beverly is the predator, punishing Dottie for stealing her parking space at the mall. The Sutphin family is having a normal breakfast, when two police officers arrive to interrogate mail threats and obscene calls to their fellow resident, Dottie Hinkle. Behind the chipper façade of a suburban housewife, however, stands a serial killer: Beverly murders people for any criticism or insult of her family, taking the kind of action that’s more Cleaver than Beaver. High-school senior Chip (Matthew Lillard) works at a video-store where he cultivates appetite for horror flicks–the kind Waters himself adores. Misty (Ricky Lake) is in college, but she is more interested in boys. Happily married to Eugene (Sam Waterston), a meek dentist, Beverly is ultra-sensitive to her children’s growing pains. Thriving at her chores, Beverly cooks meat loafs, keeps the house spic-n-span, goes to PTA meetings-in short, she performs all the duties expected of a Good American Mom.
#CINEPLEX SERIAL MOM 1994 TV#
Kathleen Turner plays Beverly Sutphin, a fiercely devoted middle-class housewife, a Supermom in the mold of June Cleaver and Donna Reed (best known to American households from her popular TV show, “The Donna Reed Show”). The director aimed at courting mainstream audiences, a strategy that worked in “Hairspray,” but failed in “Polyester.” Juxtaposing bloody murders with Beaver backgrounds, “Serial Mom” reflects a compromise between Waters’ early gross-outs and a new, more polished look.
#CINEPLEX SERIAL MOM 1994 MOVIE#
The movie is as much a satire of TV sitcoms as an ode to them. Waters built into “Serial Mom” the affection that audiences must have felt for TV shows like “Leave It to Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet.” He wanted the viewers to fantasize about the off-screen lives of the persona of those shows-to speculate about them as “real” human beings. The result was “ Serial Mom,” in 1994, a likable but soft satire of suburbanism. After making a movie about every decade he has lived in, Waters went back to a more contemporary humor with a story that takes place in the “real” world.
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