Most Deranged Matriarchs of Horror

Kate Rotunda
3 days ago
2 min read

Happy Mother’s Day to all those who celebrate! On this day dedicated to celebrating strong, kind, loving mothers I naturally wanted to throw a little horror into the mix by talking about movies that show the darker side of motherhood. So on this Mother’s Day here is a list showcasing the most deranged and disturbing matriarchs in horror.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

A blonde woman in a blue sweater is holding up a dagger while smiling with her teeth

Pamela Voorhees, Friday the 13th (1980): You can’t make a crazy mothers of horror list without the woman who kick started one of the most popular franchises of the genre. Eventually Friday the 13th makes Jason the face of the series, but we mustn't forget it all began with his mother’s grief driving her to seek revenge against those who allowed her son to drown. And so what if she mostly just kills innocent teenagers who weren’t even born when Jason died? All that matters is her murderous heart was in the right place.

A long black hand covers most of the camera from seeing the face of a ghostly woman with floating black hair

Mama, Mama (2013): Mama reminds us that being a mother is hard, especially when you are the new pseudo stepmother of two emotionally disturbed little girls who have lived feral in the woods for several years. What makes it even harder is when you find out that you now have to coparent with the deranged ghost of a mentally unstable woman from the 1800s who has been raising those two little girls for the past 5 years

A woman with light brown hair is looking up and off to the left. Her eyes are wide open and her mouth is covered in blood

Nola Carveth, The Brood (1979): Divorce is never easy on the children. There are custody battles, the constant fighting between your parents, and of course your mother being locked away in an experimental therapy program where she uses her repressed rage to create homunculi who murder those who have wronged her. But if we’re being honest what are we all if not just physical manifestations of our mother’s rage?

On left is a little girl in a white dress, her face and body shrouded in a long lacy white veil. On the right is a blonde woman in all black holding onto the little girl

Grace Stewart, The Others (2001): The Others shows what happens when you mix two of the most powerful maternal emotions in the world – grief and love. This movie is most well known for having one of the greatest plot twists of all time and if you haven’t seen it already I’ll leave this one spoiler free so you can experience the heartbreak for yourself.

A young woman and two older women are sat at a dinner table. They are in dressing gowns and the table is set with fancy glasses, lobster, and candles

Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Victoria, Rabid Grannies (1988): Most of the movies on this list deal with the complexities of motherhood and the horrors of trauma and loss, but not this one! This movie is nothing more than a highly amusing gore fest where you get to watch unlikable characters killed off one by one as they try to get away from grannies gone rabid.

A woman with curly high brown hair is wearing a white dress and smiling with a knife raised in her right hand

Margret White, Carrie (1976): There are murderers and literal monsters on this list, but Margret White is still the worst mother of them all. Even before Carrie’s “ungodly” powers are revealed, her religious zealot of a mother, ruthlessly punishes her for the sin of being born a girl. But in the end, the daughter whose life she made a living hell forces Margret to pay for her own sins.. And even though her death is arguably the most disturbing scene in the whole movie, I still think she deserved worse.