Mother Knows Worst: Psycho, Mother's Day & Flesh Eating Mothers

This week, we’re diving deep into the twisted world of horror’s most nightmarish mothers for a Mother’s Day massacre special.

We begin with Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho (1960) — the film that introduced the world to Norman Bates and his domineering, inescapable “mother,” forever changing the slasher genre and cinematic storytelling.

Then we crank up the sleaze with Mother’s Day (1980), Troma-adjacent exploitation gold where backwoods brothers and their unhinged mom turn a weekend getaway into a sadistic game of survival.

And finally, we sink our teeth into the gloriously unhinged Flesh Eating Mothers, a low-budget cult classic where suburban moms literally devour their families after a mysterious infection turns the neighborhood into an all-you-can-eat buffet of domestic horror.

Transcript

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Welcome to Dad Bot of Horror. I am Butch Barr, your host, still no co-host, still working on it. So this is season one, episode 18. So I'll start with some housekeeping. As you know, if you've listened to me before, I am located on X at Dad Bot of Horror. And I'm also on Instagram at Dad Bot of Horror. So stop by and uh follow me if you like. Or send me a message. Since the uh the last episode, I have seen a movie, a horror movie. It's called Marriage Bites. It's on Tubi. Um, I watched it because my face is actually in the film. I'm one of the pictures on the refrigerator door. I'm also listed in the credits twice, once as family member Barry, and also as a special thanks. The movie's not too bad. I mean, it's an independent movie, which is how I got that. I went through a crowdfunder, crowdfunding site to get my picture in the movie and also get in the special thanks area. So, but again, supporting the movie. And I would give it a five out of ten. There's nothing overtly bad about it. I just think maybe they got over ambitious. And I forget which actor said it, but he said, like, comedy is hard, like everything else is easy when it comes to acting. And this is obviously a horror comedy, and the horror was comedic, and the comedy was horrific. So, five out of ten. I also watched uh another movie. This isn't a new one, it's not really, I guess, not really much of a movie. It's more of a let's say, opinion documentary. It's called 50 Worst Films of All Time. I believe it's on Prime. I have seen it before, and I I watch it just as a lark again. And I'd like to know what uh prerequisites or qualifications they use to judge the movies, uh, because I've probably seen 50 movies that were worse than their number one worst movie. So, but it's still it's fun to watch. I did see about 30 of the 50. If it was 50 worst horror films of all time, I probably would have seen all of them. Um, I do like to watch bad horror movies. And again, I will talk about uh supporting independent movie makers if you can. It's like uh, you know, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Seed and Spark, WeFunder. You can find uh movies to support in all those. And again, one of the ways I support is by watching them on Tubi, Plex, Fossum, any of those uh you know free streaming services where you have commercials. So, yes, please try to do that. So, this is my Mother's Day episode. I'm gonna try to do movies related to mothers. So, uh, for the very first movie, for season one, episode 18, the movie is Psycho from 1960. Um, you can rent or buy it on Prime. Production company Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions and Shamley Productions. So this was an independent movie. Director was Alfred Hitchcock, writers were Joseph Stefano and Robert Block, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Lee, and Vera Miles. It's kind of funny talking about the plot and everything like this because I would imagine. Well, you could be young. I was gonna say, anybody my age has had to have seen this movie. Anybody older than me probably saw this movie. But I'm sure if they I have some young listeners, they might not have seen it, and you should. It's an excellent movie. A secretary on the run for embezzlement takes refuge at a secluded California motel owned by a repressed man and his overbearing mother. Um, that is an interesting plot, not 100% accurate, but still an interesting plot. Again, why this movie? Um, it's Mother's Day, and let's face it, there are really some other things going on in this movie. How did I see it? I am pretty sure this was another movie that was part of the creature double feature that was on Saturday afternoons on a TV station out of Philadelphia. And I'm pretty sure I did watch it with my mother. I'm pretty sure that I did watch it with mom. My favorite kill. So only two people get killed in this movie that you see. You know, that you know are killed at that time. So of the two, I'm gonna pick the iconic shower scene. Again, even people that haven't seen this movie have to know about the shower scene. I mean, it when I say iconic, I'm not kidding. I mean, it is iconic. So, you know, it's probably the reason people my age are afraid of taking showers, at least girls, women. So I'll set it up. I don't even have it in my notes, so I'm just gonna have to do this from memory. So the the idea, you know, is Janet Lee is taking a shower, and all of a sudden a say woman comes in and starts like slashing at her, hacking away with a knife, um and kills her in the shower. And I'll talk a little bit about that that scene later, but uh, you know, for most part, that's it. That was my favorite kill. And let's face it, it it's such an iconic kill. I mean, why how couldn't it be? So there's so many places to start with this movie. Again, absolute classic. For people who don't like horror movies, this is still a good one to watch. It's a Hitchcock movie. If you like Hitchcock, you know, you're gonna like this too. His, you know, it's it's tame for a horror movie, but uh, the the some of the issues surrounding it are what makes it kind of shocking. The iconic let me try that again. The iconic shower scene, that is just brilliant directing and editing. So when you're watching it, like you feel that you're seeing Janet Lee getting stabbed by a knife, but you never do. You believe there's nudity, but there isn't. It's just lots of quick cuts of the knife coming down, Janet screaming, showing a part of Janet's body that is bare, nothing that you wouldn't see if she was wearing a bikini. And then sometimes you see something dark because it was black and white, going down the shower drain, which was normally Hershey syrup, because apparently chocolate syrup showed up better on film. I almost yeah, Sean Connery that one up. Hershey Sherrup. I mean, it really was that scene is a masterclass in filmmaking. So, again, if you haven't seen it, you should watch it. And if you have seen it, I'd watch it again. That particular scene uh took seven days to film. I mean, that is, you know, not wasted time. Some directors would see that as wasted time. Seven days, no, no, no. If you want to get it right, you gotta get it right. And and and that thing was such a key part of the movie, you had to get it right. And it was amazing. Originally, in that scene, there was supposed to be no music. Uh Hitchcock's wife talked him into trying music for that scene, and it's that, you know, the the violin, you know. I mean, again, lots of people will say pay homage to that or copy that kind of thing, because I mean, using music was great citizen, and that specific music was perfect. In fact, that music scene also doubled the composer's salary for the film because it worked so well and was so important to that scene. Uh, the movie is based on a book of the same name. The book and movie are both very loosely based on serial killer Ed Gain. After reading the book, Hitchcock bought the rights for about $9,000 because he really wanted to make this movie. And then he said about buying up all the copies of the book so as not to spoil the ending of the movie. So imagine that. Told his assistant, whoever, saying, go out and find all the copies of this book and buy them up because I don't want the ending ruined. Uh, because of the themes of the movie, Paramount would not finance the project because they deemed it to be too sleazy, because it's, you know, a woman on the run for stealing money, and she gets killed by a guy that dresses up as his dead mother. Again, I should have said spoiler alert, but come on, man, you gotta know it by now. Hitchcock financed most of the budget himself, taking a huge ownership stake in the profits in lieu of a salary. So I'm pretty sure that he made out in this case. It is amazing how shocking this movie was for the time. By today's standards, it's very tame. A man, at that time, a man who kills his mother, keeps her preserved in the house, and then basically goes crazy enough to develop kind of a split personality. So he believes she's still alive and will dress up like her at times and even talk like her at times and have conversations with himself. That was very shocking for the 60s. Even funnier and probably more shocking, this movie is the first movie, American-made movie, that showed a flushing toilet. I mean, can you believe that the censors did not want to show a flushing toilet? Like that was the 1960s. In this movie, I don't know how you know you think of Scream, but the leading lady in this movie is killed before the movie's even halfway over. So your final girl is not the final girl, not even close. And that in itself is shocking. I know we talked, like I said, Scream, where Drew Barrymore is killed, because she was the biggest name, but obviously she was not the leading lady. I mean, it is apparent in this movie she's carrying the movie up until the point where she's killed, which is longer than five minutes in, you know, past the opening credits, I would say. So, yeah. Which, you know, and that again is shocking. When thinking about Hitchcock movies, I always think to myself that I really haven't watched many, because there's many that I haven't watched. And then, you know, I think about it, and I have you have Psycho, The Birds, Lifeboat. These are just ones I've seen: Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Decatch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and then his last one, uh Family Pot. I mean, I guess I had seen a lot of Hitchcock movies, and and I don't even know how many that is out of the percentage of his total ones, but those are a lot of excellent movies in there that I have seen that are his, that he is a director, and I like all of them. So if you're making a list of Hitchcock movies to see, Psycho the Birds, Light Boat, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, to Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and finally Family Plot. Um, if I was gonna put those in order, it's really hard to do. Um, I would think that to catch a thief in vertigo, I would put right above family plot. I would have family plot as the lowest, just because it's kind of 70-ish. But otherwise, they're kind of all the same, all at the top. So the end of this movie is also very memorable. So Norman Bates has been caught, he's trying to kill Vera Miles, and he's dressed up as his mother. And so the psychiatrist comes out after talking to him. It's kind of neat. I like this the actor who plays the psychiatrist in this. Um, he's in a TV show that I like, wasn't a TV show that I like called Kolchak. But anyway, so he comes out and he basically talks to the cops and lets them know, you know, like Norman did and didn't kill Janet Lee and and uh I think was uh the the uh private detective. Norman physically did it, but it was actually his mother who did it because his mother has become the dominant personality in Norman. So it was really kind of interesting, but Norman is now sitting in a room and he's sitting there, but in his head, he's talking, it's his mother talking in his head, and it's funny. So the camera is like slowly going in on Norman. He's just sitting there, you know, kind of looking down, and in his head, his mother's talking, and I'm gonna read it because he's like, Oh, they know I can't even move, you know, like because the psychiatrist is blaming it on her. And she's like, Oh, they know I can't even move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet just in case they do suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even gonna swap that fly. I hope they are watching, they'll see. They'll see and they'll know. They'll say, Why? She wouldn't even harm a fly. And like, right when that ends, like Norman kind of looks up and it's kind of a like a real small, sinister smile on his face. It's really great. It's a great end, it really is. So other little things in the movie Halloween, which stars Janet Lee's daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis. Sam Ludis Sam Loomis is the psychiatrist trying to save Haddenfield from the shape, and psycho Sam Loomis is Janet Lee's boyfriend's name. So that's kind of a neat connection. Anthony Perkins. His career really wasn't going anywhere until this movie. Then it absolutely took off. And then, like in the 80s, there was like this other like horror resurgence with him, kind of like a Vincent Price, like all of a sudden, you know, like he's become like this horror icon kind of thing, which is kind of neat. Now, the resurgence was maybe maybe lower budget because he did like psycho 2 and psycho 3, and it's like 20 something years later. The idea is he's being released from jail, and now maybe he's killing again, maybe he's not. Lee, again, she's down at Lee. She's had a good career before and after the movie. And you know, Hitchcock, just an absolute fantastic director. There's actually a really good movie called Hitchcock. I don't remember what streaming service it's on, but it's about Hitchcock, of course, but it centers around the making of this movie, so it makes it like really interesting. And there are actually some pretty big names in it. I mean, Anthony, excuse me, Anthony Hopkins plays Hitchcock in it, and uh yes, it's an excellent movie. I'd watch that one too. So I would watch Psycho and I'd watch Hitchcock and maybe maybe watch Hitchcock first and then watch Psycho. So that was a lot of talk about one movie, but I'll tell you what, it's worth it because that movie is just excellent. And it also leaves me a little bit of time to talk about the next two movies, which are not excellent. They are really bad movies. So, movie number two for season one, episode 18, is Mother's Day from 1980. You can find it on AMC Plus, Con TV, Screenbox, Fossum, Pluto, and To Be To Be. Production companies were Troma Entertainment, Saga Films, and Duty Productions. Director was Charles Kaufman, writer Charles Kaufman, and Warren Late. It stars Tiana Pierce, Nancy Hendrickson, and Deborah. I'm gonna say Luce. It could be Luce, L-U-C-E. I'm gonna go with Luce, but I'm not sure which one it is. The plot. Two brothers kidnap and brutalize three women for the pleasure of their demented mother. Again, why this movie? A Mother's Day theme, and uh it is definitely centers around this mother. And I mean that in every single way it could be meant. How did I see it? I watched it for the first time for this episode. Favorite kill? I have to tell you, none of the kills are really that memorable. Interesting facts about the movie. So the movie starts pretty well, like it's got a good beginning. So they start out at like this weird inspirational group meeting, you know, kind of feels a little culty, but it's just like a feel-good kind of thing. Feel good about yourself, everybody's happy, blah, blah, blah. That kind of stuff. And it's like this a meeting of it, and and so after the meeting, this old lady's talking to this young couple, look kind of hippie-ish, and they coax her into giving into her into coax her into giving them a ride in her car. Now they seem kind of shady. Um, you feel like they're gonna kill her. And then at some point, she fakes like there's something wrong with the car, the older lady, and she pulls over and she gets out of the car, and then her two sons or two men jump out of the woods. You find out later they're her son, jump out of the woods, and attack the young couple. I think it's a great beginning because it's very misleading, because you really think this couple's gonna do win the old lady, but in turn, she, you know, we're setting them up. And then it was downhill from there. So, as they said, two brothers kidnapped brutalized woman, da da da. We don't know why. Like, we don't know why, other than like the children aren't that weird, like it's not there's there's no good reason for it, and I I don't know. So something happened to mother, but you don't know what happened to the mother, you don't know any of this. They really don't get into any type of backstory, which I realize spends some time, but it it's worth spending sometimes. You know, and it's not just that they're kidnapping these women, and and and they're also forcing the them to like act out these little vignettes for their mother, which eventually let leads them to being raped and then killed. It's just a really weird movie. Um, there's also like a training sequence in it where these guys are like training to kill people while their mom watches them train. Again, just weird. So this is a rape and revenge movie, as they're calling them. So a woman gets brutalized sexually and you know left for dead sometimes, or or escapes and then comes back and kills the persons or per person or persons that did it to her. That's what this is. I don't care for these kind of movies. I don't like the the raping and brutalizing of women. I really it's tough for me to watch. I think the only thing worse for me is watching something happen to a dog. That really is tough for me because like I feel like you can't do enough bad things to a person that has raped a woman. You just can't. Like, there's not enough torture in the world that would make it me feel right about it. It again, this is a really bad movie. There's also like this weird, like so they go back and they have their revenge, okay? The girls go back, there's three of them. The one gets killed, the two girls come back, kill the guys, and the and the and the mom, and they're like walking to freedom. And then, you know, hey, let's do a you know, weird ending type thing. Let's copy. I don't know, it was made in 1980. I don't know if they had seen Friday the 13th and copied it, or thought they were doing something wrong or heard something, but let's do this like ooh, surprise ending, something jumps out of at them. And it's this like weird Bigfoot-looking creature, like had nowhere at all had anything been mentioned about at least in Friday the 13th, they talked about Jason drowning. Like, this is just out of the blue, and it was it again added to the weirdness of this bad movie. The probably best and strangest thing in the whole picture is um the song I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James and the Shandells is in the movie. Like, I don't know how or why, and I can only imagine the rights to get that song in the movie had to have cost more than the rest of the movie being made. It's just weird for that song to be in this terrible movie. So, movie number three in season one, episode 18, is called Flesh Eating Mothers. It's from 1988. You can find it on Fossum, Tubi, or Plex. The production company is Indigo Motion Pictures. Director James, again, I think Spanish for Aviles Martin. Aviles? Aviles? I don't know. A V I L E S Martin. He also was one of the writers, along with Zev Schlasinger. Like, did they fake their names to, you know, protect the innocent? Starring Robert Lee Oliver, Donatella, and Neil Rosen. The plot. Suburban housewives turn into vicious cannibals after committing adultery with the neighborhood womanizer. Again, I don't know if that's 100% accurate. Why this movie? Again, Mother's Day. It definitely deals with Mothers. I don't know why there's so many, well, I shouldn't say so many, but why there are such terrible Mother's Day movies. Or yeah, I don't know. There are better Mothers movies, but they're all like better, better. So I couldn't do that. Have all three or movies be just really good movies. I guess I could have. I can do whatever I want. It's my show. Um, how did I see it? I watched it for the first time for this podcast. My favorite kill. So there are really awful special effects and makeup in this. I would have to say the best kill. You don't really see it. There's a mother who eats her own baby. She just turns away from the camera and makes biting and slurping noises. So I guess the silliness of what she was doing to make it seem like she was eating her baby, I think maybe that was enough for me to say it was the best one. So the movie starts with a hunter in the woods who all of a sudden is missing his arm and he didn't notice that it was ripped or eaten off. This kind of suspension of belief that you would need to deal with this movie, it really is terrible. It's like terrible acting, terrible writing. I was reading somewhere where the budget was like $10,000, which I find hard to believe. It just boy. So, like there's three different high school kids in here, and you're following around high school kids. And at one point, each of those three kids watches their own mother like kill and eat someone. But at no time are they like, hey, let's go. We better contact the police or the FBI. No, no, no, no, no. They're just running around. I don't know. It's just weird. There's even a mother-daughter dance. Like, it's it is it is out there. And it seems like they talk about them sleeping with this one guy and then spreading it, and maybe that is true, but I don't think so. It seems like because at the end of the movie, these killings are spreading all over the country, and it's it's like women are being punished by God. So it's women who commit adultery seem to be punished by God, and he turns them into flesh-eating creatures. So, um oh, and the way to cure that is to give them a shot of penicillin. It took scientists so long to figure that out. Like, wouldn't you think that might be the first thing? Why don't we try other cures first before spending hours and hours and hours and hours trying to figure out a cure? Let's let's start with penicillin. Yeah, no, no. Um, it's funny because you know, the FX in this is definitely early 80s. FX. Unfortunately, the movie was shot in the late 80s, and thanks to guys like Rick Baker and Tom Civini, FX should have been much better by this time, but they just weren't. It oh my gosh, that was such a bad movie, and yeah, it was such a bad movie. So that is uh movie number three. I'm thinking, oh, and I did the previous episode. I asked you to uh try to guess what movies, what Mother's Day movies I would do. How did you guys do? And lastly, uh next week, well, next episode, hopefully it's next week. Next episode, I think I'm just gonna do just independent movies. I have a bunch of DVDs and Blu-rays that I have in my collection from uh I bought some at Monstermania con. And some were through crowdfunding sites. So I wanna I haven't seen them. I want to start watching them, and uh I'll watch them, and I think next episode I'll do three or possibly more because independent movies really don't take quite as long on here as some of the bigger, better movies like Psycho took. Well over half of this episode, I believe. So I'll probably do four movies, but they'll all be independent horror movies. So until then, have fun.