It’s almost Mother’s Day, so of course everyone is talking about how great their moms are and what fabulous thing they can do to honor their moms. So I thought it would be a nice change of pace to talk about some notoriously crappy moms – mostly fictional, with two notable exceptions. Warning: Spoilers ahead!
1. Margaret White, Carrie White’s mother. You know, Carrie, the Stephen King character with telekinesis. If her fanatically religious mother hadn’t been so whacked, maybe Carrie would have had a shot at a normal life. Instead, she scolded her and threw her in a closet to pray every time Carrie did something she considered “sinful,” which was pretty much everything. No wonder Carrie ended up torching her high school and killing her mom.
2. Norma Bates, Norman Bates’ mother. After her husband died, Norma raised her son by herself and raised him to believe that women were evil and slutty, unless they were mothers. The two of them became totally wrapped up in their own little world together until Norma met a guy and decided to remarry; Norman gets so jealous that he ends up killing them both and making it look like a suicide. Obviously he was a little warped after that and started wearing his mother’s clothes and sharing half of his brain with her persona, but it’s really Mrs. Bates’ own fault. After all, a boy’s best friend is his mother.
3. Pamela Voorhees, Jason Voorhees’ mother. All of the best horror movie villains have mommy issues, don’t they? Pamela was only 15 when she got pregnant with our favorite hockey masked murderer, and he apparently had water on the brain which caused some deformities. Not wanting him to be made fun of at school, she kept him at home to herself. She took a job at Camp Crystal Lake and brought Jason with her; he wandered into the lake one night to prove he could swim like the other kids could and “drowned.” Pam was angry and blamed the counselors and killed a couple of them to exact her revenge, causing the camp to close. It reopened, so she poisoned the water and set some fires, leading to another closing. It reopens again and she kills seven more counselors. She finally meets her match and is decapitated by a particularly feisty counselor, but Jason, who has been alive the whole time, preserves her head and her body and makes a shrine to it. Good parenting, there.
4. Beverly Sutphin, Serial Mom. Beverly is so Stepford it’s scary. When distressing yet normal things happen, Beverly takes her anger a bit too far – for instance, when her daughter gets stood up for a date, Bev slightly overreacts by impaling the would-be suitor with a fireplace poker. One of her son’s teachers mentions at a parent-teacher conference that he may be a little too obsessed with horror movies, so Mrs. Sutphin flattens the teacher with her car. Repeatedly. She even bludgeons her neighbor to death with a leg of lamb. She is eventually caught and stands trial but is acquitted thanks to a series of mishaps and some careful planning by Beverly, but it doesn’t stop her from killing again: when she sees one of the jurors wearing white shoes after Labor Day, she follows the woman out to a payphone and beats her to death with the phone receiver. Stacy and Clinton would not be proud.
5. Mel Jones, Coraline’s mom. Well, Coraline’s mom isn’t that bad. She’s just a little preoccupied and doesn’t pay as much attention to her daughter as she should. It’s Coraline’s mother in an alternate universe – her Other Mother – that inspires nightmares. She seems like she’s all butterflies and light, but that ends when she tells Coraline that she has to sew buttons over her eyes if she wants to continue living in the fun Other world. This is not what the Other Mother wanted to hear and she kind of loses it. Turns out she was responsible for the disappearance of at least three kids over the years; she kept them in her Other world and then locked them in a closet and let them starve to death when she got bored with them. That’s a pretty mean mommy, indeed.
6. Olivia Foxworth and Corinne Dollanganger from Flowers in the Attic. This mother-daughter duo conspired to keep four children – Corinne’s kids – locked in an attic for years. Olivia is played by Louise Fletcher, the lady who played Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, so you can imagine what a baddie the character is. Corinne has to hide her children because her father is on his deathbed and she won’t receive her vast inheritance if he learns that she had children (she married her half-brother and her dad was kind of mad about that. Go figure), and her mother, Olivia, is all-too happy to help. It seems for a while that Olivia is the really rotten one – she starves them, pours hot tar on the eldest granddaughter’s head because she feared her pretty blonde hair was making her too vain, and kicks the youngest child (among other things). But we learn that Corinne is the one who has been slowly poisoning her children by sprinkling arsenic in with the powdered sugar that tops the cookies they start mysteriously receiving. Yep, pretty sure that poisoning your children so you get to keep your inheritance lands you on the “Worst Moms Ever” list.
7. Cinderella’s stepmother. I bent the rules a little bit, but it’s hard to leave Lady Tremaine off of the list. You know the story: she marries Cinderella’s dad, and when he dies, she turns Cinderelly into a scullery maid and refuses to acknowledge that she is anything resembling a daughter at all. It’s one of the earliest “wicked stepmother” portrayals – not the Disney version, of course, but the Perrault fairytale.
8. Mrs. Wormwood, Matilda’s mom. Roald Dahl knew how to write mean mothers as well: not only is Matilda’s mom extremely dismissive and unimpressed by her child-prodigy daughter, it turns out one of the other characters in the book has a horrible mom as well: Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey, is really the pseudo-daughter of the horrible schoolmistress Miss Trunchbull, who tosses children around like she’s competing in the shot put.
9. Joan Crawford is where we get to our exceptions I mentioned above. While Joan Crawford was a real person, obviously, the Joan Crawford depicted in Mommie Dearest may or may not have been exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. Christina Crawford would tell you it wasn’t exaggerated at all, but some of Joan’s other children and her friends say her temper has been embellished. Nonetheless, the Joan we see in the movie is ruthless and crazy, giving Christina’s birthday toys away, chopping off her hair when she sees her wearing makeup, and beats her mercilessly with wire hangers.
10. Wanda Holloway, the alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Another real lady, this time portrayed in a made-for-TV movie starring Holly Hunter and Beau Bridges. In 1991, this woman from Channelview, Texas, had her brother-in-law hire a hitman to kill the mother of a girl competing for a spot on the cheerleading squad with her daughter. She figured that the girl would be so upset she wouldn’t try out for the squad and her daughter would get the open position. The girls were 13 years old at the time.
What bad moms did I miss? I know there are lots of them out there – horror movies seem to teem with terrible parents. Share them in the comments!
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Well, a recent example can be seen from last week’s episode of “Lost.” Daniel Faraday’s mother knowingly sent him to the island where her younger self (due to time travel) would kill him. And she nagged him his whole life into only focusing on his scientific gifts and not music or women. What a wonderful mom.
And the John Locke character had a crazy mom, too, who ended up conning her son to help Locke’s father “steal” a kidney.
Did any of that make sense?
posted by Tracie on 5-6-2009 at 4:34 pm
Actually, the step mother plays very little role in the Perrault version of the fairy tail, other than having her work as a servant. Though Perrault pre-dates the Grimm Brothers by about a century, THAT Cinderella step-mom takes the cake. She’s the one that makes her “beloved” daughters cut off bits of their feet to make the slipper fit. Anything it takes to become mother of the queen I guess. Clearly, Disney decided to stick with the Perrault version of the story…
posted by Hastings on 5-6-2009 at 4:46 pm
WOW…TALE..not tail. I knew that looked funny when I typed it…
posted by Hastings on 5-6-2009 at 4:48 pm
We had to watch the movie Sybil starring Sally Field in high school psychology, and she has a pretty mean mother. In the movie, Sybil’s psychiatrist figures out that Sybil actually has 16 personalities, all created because her mother was extremely abusive when she was a child (the mother was thought to be schizophrenic). Some of the scenes they depicted were very messed up, and from what I understand, the original book was even more intense.
posted by Brittany on 5-6-2009 at 4:54 pm
How about the mom played by Mary Beth Hurt in the movie “Parents?” She wasn’t especially mean, though i do remember her killing someone. Maybe she falls in the “creepy Mom” category.
posted by mrwaturi on 5-6-2009 at 5:32 pm
I want my mommy. . . .
posted by Nathan on 5-6-2009 at 6:06 pm
flowers in the attic is one of my favorites! i didn’t know there was a movie though?? i must find it! how exciting!
posted by tiffany on 5-6-2009 at 6:34 pm
Just saw the end of a movie with Shelly Winters called “Bloody Mama”. From the bit I saw, I gathered she had led and bullied her brood of boys into a life of crime, and they all die in a gun battle with local authorities.
Then there’s Charlie and Alan Harper’s mom on “Two and a Half Men”. Yikes.
posted by Pam on 5-6-2009 at 6:36 pm
I’m ashamed to remember such a minute detail about book I read in middle school, but in Flowers in the Attic, Corinne married her half-uncle. Her husband was her father’s half-brother. The implied age difference adds an extra sheen of oogie to the whole thing that was oogie enough as is.
posted by Rosemary on 5-6-2009 at 6:46 pm
I enjoyed this list, Serial Mom is a great movie! What book movie etc. is #5, Mel Jones from? I probably should have heard of her but can’t recall who she is. There is also Cody Jarret’s(James Cagney)Mom from the movie White Heat-”Made it Ma Top of the World” but I am not spoiling too much of that in case anybody hasn’t seen it.
posted by bob-o on 5-6-2009 at 7:09 pm
Tracie – I agree with your comment, that was horrible, but fortunately I already saw that episode. If I hadn’t (I usually DVR it and watch it later when I have time), I would have been very upset you gave away the ending!
posted by CK on 5-6-2009 at 7:31 pm
@Rosemary – I loooved V.C. Andrews books back in the day. This is what I remember about it, but I could be totally off. Wasn’t Corinne Malcolm’s daughter by Alicia, his dad’s crazy-young new wife? And she had a previous son with Malcolm’s dad, and that was Christopher. So I think Corinne was Christopher’s half-sister AND uncle, wasn’t he? I suddenly have the urge to go back and read them all… :)
posted by stacy on 5-6-2009 at 8:33 pm
@bob-o:
Mel Jones is the mother of Coraline. The original book was by Neil Gaiman (who also wrote Stardust and Mirrormask). This past fall Tim Burton released one of his fabulous claymation renditions of the story. It should be coming out on DVD soon and I HIGHLY recommend it.
posted by Hastings on 5-6-2009 at 9:19 pm
Stacy you are right. I just recently read the Flowers in the Attic series. Corrine and Christopher were in fact half brother and sister (there fathers were the elder Foxworth and Malcom who is the grandfather in the book) and the mother was Alecia who was elder Foxworth’s wife. Malcom raped Alecia and produced Corrine, but Olivia hid Alecia in the attic and passed off Corrine as her and Malcom’s child. SO…Corrine and Christopher knew they were half uncle and niece, but not brother and sister.
posted by Jennifer on 5-6-2009 at 10:24 pm
ok, well i have to agree that Evelyn Harper (Two and a Half Men) is one of the worst mothers (and grandmother) in the whole wide world! But have you read VC Andrews Runaways series? Three of the books had a horrible foster mother in them, but the mother in Butterfly took the cake. She was so bad, Butterfly or Janet would catatonic when stressed! Thats bad, but a very good book and series.
posted by Lisa on 5-7-2009 at 2:00 am
Petunia Dursley, anyone? Okay, so she’s actually a mean Aunt, but she spoils her own son rotten, which is bad parenting to me.
posted by Heather on 5-7-2009 at 3:01 am
Oh!! Marisa Coulter, from “His Dark Materials”. There’s a weird mom for you.
posted by Heather on 5-7-2009 at 3:03 am
Woah, a lot of Flowers in the Attic love happening. Good to see, thats one of my favourite books!
And well done Jennifer for summing it up right; Corrine and Chris thought they were only (hah) half uncle and niece when in fact they were half brother and sister.
And then Cathy and Christopher (Jr) continued the family tradition…
posted by MissMortimer on 5-7-2009 at 4:14 am
The wonderful Anne Ramsey as Momma in Throw Momma from the Train. Courtesy of imdb.com:
Momma: Who the HELL are you?
Larry: I’m Owen’s friend.
Momma: Owen doesn’t have a friend!
Larry: That’s because he’s shy.
Momma: No he’s not. He’s fat and he’s stupid!
posted by Fran on 5-7-2009 at 8:30 am
@Hastings
Tim Burton had nothing to do with Coraline. Henry Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas (this is why they say “from the director that brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas” or whatever) and Coraline. Coraline was written by the gloriously awesome Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton was the writer of TNBC.
The next Tim Burton movie coming out is “9″ and should be spectacular. Corpse Bride was the last movie he did.
Sorry, I just had that out.
As for horrible mothers, how about Ingrid Magnussen from “White Oleander”? She neglects her daughter (Astrid), forbids her any contact with her father, murders her own lover, goes to prison and leaves her daughter to suffer the foster system. Astrid drops acid and remembers a woman named Annie but I’m not going to reveal what the situation is with that in case there are people who haven’t read the book or seen the movie.
posted by nikki on 5-7-2009 at 9:26 am
And Tim Burton is only the producer of “9″.
Okay. I’m done.
posted by nikki on 5-7-2009 at 9:28 am
Fran, I am 110% with you! Momma was the bomb. “OWEN! Make me a sandwich – and don’t put any $#%@$! mustard on it!” LOL!
posted by Deb on 5-7-2009 at 12:20 pm
No Mamma from Goonies mention? Come on people!
Chaining your deformed son to a chair and beating up your kids, leading them into a life of crime and bad Italian food…yikes!
posted by Tiffany on 5-7-2009 at 2:59 pm
Stacy, I LOVED that you mentioned Coraline. Such a spectacular book! It gave me nightmares when I read it (I was 12 at the time). The movie was also fantastic. Neil Gaiman = creepy genius. Everyone should go read The Graveyard Book – again FABULOUS.
posted by Lindsay F on 5-7-2009 at 3:11 pm
Great list! Lucille from Arrested Development is one of my favorites, but i can’t help but think of Mom (of Mom’s Robots)from Futurama.
posted by PK on 5-7-2009 at 3:20 pm
@Lindsay F – I just read The Graveyard Book a couple of weeks ago and loved it!!
posted by Stacy Conradt on 5-7-2009 at 4:47 pm
The mother in Goodnight, Mr. Tom scared me and I’m a grown woman. Tied and locked her adolescent son, along with her baby daughter in a closet with no light, food, or water. Then she commits suicide in another town.
posted by Madelle Becker on 5-7-2009 at 4:55 pm
I am sending this to my mom and telling her that I am proud she did not make the top ten list.
posted by M on 5-7-2009 at 6:16 pm
mommy dearest…geeez my sister used to warn me not to go home..she say “stay away moms all wire hangers again” lol. no embellishment here.
posted by tony on 5-7-2009 at 7:10 pm
Well… while not a murderer or anything per se, Hamlet’s mother does marry her late husband’s brother before the king’s body is cold, thereby keeping Hamlet from becoming King of Denmark and possibly making him mad….
posted by ute on 5-7-2009 at 8:05 pm
One word: Medea.
posted by Phaedrus on 5-8-2009 at 8:33 pm
Hmm…this sound familiar? Amy Madison’s mom from BtVS. Brrrr…she’s cold.
Two guys kill for their ma. Basic horror story plot. What’s the title again?
posted by Jen Pen on 5-9-2009 at 11:48 pm
Stacy: In the book “Matilda”, is Miss Trunchbull Miss Honey’s mom? In the movie she was her aunt. Still was a mother-type figure so I think it counts.
My favorite bad mom is Lucille from Arrested Development. Motherboy? Annyong? Denying Buster his juice? Hilarious and mean at the same time. :)
posted by Tricia on 5-13-2009 at 12:24 pm