‘Mother’s Day’ Turns 45: Troma’s Spiritual Sequel to the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Franchise

45 years ago, Charles Kaufman’s grimy Mother’s Day arrived. Kaufman, who teamed up with Warren Leight on the script, delivers a filthy and chaotic tale about a tight-knit family that tortures and kills people for the hell of it. With its brazen and, quite frankly, mangled approach, it remains one of Troma’s best releases and worthy of being an unofficial The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel/spin-off – or at the very least a companion piece. Intended as its own thing, it carries the raw, unhinged spirit of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation and could very well live within that same universe.

Mother (Beatrice Pons) and her two boys, Ike (Frederick Coffin) and Addley (Michael McCleery), live a secluded life in New Jersey’s Deep Barons. They frequently catch tourists and sightseers winding through the woods and take them back to their rickety two-story home, where they mutilate and slaughter passersby for entertainment. The film opens on a self-help seminar called E.G.O. (or Ernie’s Growth Opportunity), when attendees have finished training and are now officially “graduates.”

Mother, ironically, sits right up front and befriends a couple, Terry (Luisa Marsella) and Charlie, ultimately offering them a ride to the bus station. They have the same thing on their mind: murder. But they have no idea who they’re up against. When the car “breaks down,” Ike and Addley emerge from the surrounding woodlands and pounce on Terry and Charlie, slashing their necks and beheading them. It’s a gruesome, uncomfortable scene (the two brothers unzip their pants, in an attempt to assault Terry) that sets up the story quite nicely.