Hollywood embraces the “bad mom” stereotype as much as “bad girl.”
Being mom isn’t easy: it’s a road filled with compromises, sacrifices and responsibilities. But if you’re even thinking that you’re doing a bad job at raising your child or ever want to criticized your own parents’ behavior, remember there are way lousier moms out there. This weekend we’ll see a whole bunch of them in the new comedy Bad Moms that sees several young mothers finally snapping under the pressure and letting their inner demons rage. In the meantime we’re remembering other fictional women with highly questionable models of parenting.
Carrie (1976)
Some moms are religiously obsessed with their children’s well-being. In Carrie’s case, her mom was simply obsessed with religion and her views on her teenage daughter’s needs were, to say the least, a bit outdated. No wonder Carrie couldn’t control her not-covered-in-the-Bible superpowers and eventually turned her prom into a festive massacre. While Piper Laurie completely stole the show as the telepathic teen’s mother, Julianne Moore was also great in the remake. Too bad she was the only good thing about that remake.
August: Osage Country (2013)
We’re sure that in real life Meryl Streep has got to be a lovely person and an even lovelier mom. But her better known roles as of late are all pretty intimidating. In August: Osage Country she managed to outshine (or more like overshadow) her icon character from Devil Wears Prada by becoming an abusive scheming matriarch of a highly dysfunctional family. Her character Violet Weston is somebody we’d love to never meet at any family gathering.
The Visit (2015)
Sure, moms can’t be tough to deal with, but grandmas are known to be your safe haven with their unmatched knack for knitting and cookie-making. Well, think again. As proven by latest M. Night Shymalan’s family horror, a trip to your grandparents’ house can turn into a nightmare. Your grandmother may wander around the dark house completely naked before scratching the walls with her razor-sharp nails. And then one fine morning she’ll ask you to clean the oven…from the inside. Maybe opt for a family trip to Hawaii next vacation season?
Precious (2009)
Oh, man, where do we even begin with this mother-of-the-Apocalypse ironically named Mary and played by shockingly believable Mo’Nique?.. She’s loud, obnoxious, violent and couldn’t protect her child for her life. That’s how Precious ends up getting repeatedly raped by her own father while Mary’s only concerned with why her husband chose their daughter instead of her. Dropping a newborn on the floor? Trying to convince a social worker that she’s really a victim here? There are a lot of trick up Mary’s leopard-printed sleeves yet none of them can prevent her from the ultimately gloomy fate.
American Pie (1999)
Long before Fergie decided to give MILF a fresh spin and turn it into “Moms I’d Like to Follow”, there was the queens of all MILFs aka Stifler’s mom. An ultimate party crasher, she always got what she wanted and what she wanted for some reason was the least appealing nerdy member of the boys clique of the hormones-infested movie franchise. Who also happened to be her son’s arch-nemesis, but why would that bother her at all? Jennifer Coolidger later switched Jeanine Stifler’s stilettos for equally chic high heels of Sophie, Polish entrepreneur from 2 Broke Girls, who could’ve easily passed as Jeanine’s cousin. Once a MILF, always a MILF.
Friday the 13th (1980)
When your son drowns at the same camp where you’re working after whole summer worth of bullying, you should really re-consider your parenting skills. Yet Mrs. Voorhees decided to take out her anger on the young camp counselors, slashing them left and right in the first part of what was to become one of the most iconic horror franchises of all time. Sure, her resurrected son Jason usually takes most of the credit for his brutal kills, but his mom gets her 15 second of fame every time “kill, kill, kill, mom, mom, mom” is heard in any of the Friday the 13th films.
The Nice Guys (2016)
We don’t want to spoil the latest bromedy from Shane Black, the creator of Lethal Weapon saga. So we’ll just hint that Kim Basinger’s Judith, an official in the US Department of Justice, will not be invited to join the League of Justice any time soon. Her questionable actions result in her daughter turning to porn tycoon and eventually running away with half the city of Los Angeles mixed up in the chase.
Savages (2012)
Word of advice: when you’re running the biggest drug cartel in Mexico, make sure to get your children far away from you as possible. Otherwise you’re risking repeating the fate of Salma Hayek’s Elena, whose teenage daughter gets kidnapped when one of her routine schemes goes horribly wrong. Balancing work and family business is hard whether you’re working in the office or ordering your enemies’ heads to be severed.
