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Motherhood is intrinsically linked with horror. Themes range from the body horror parallels of having something growing inside you, to the way that pregnancy alters the way one thinks and acts. Films explore the fear that something could happen to one’s child, or maniacal matriarchs that instill fear in their children. Horror and motherhood go hand in hand.
Classics like Rosemary’s Baby and even Poltergeist present strong themes of maternal fear, but there are plenty of examples of mothers in horror. From homicidal pregnancies to vampiric motherly protection, here are some horror movies about mothers that will make viewers think twice about the miracle of life.
Andy Muschietti’s directorial debut Mama was released in 2013, and stars Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj-Coster Waldau. After the financial crisis of 2008, a distraught and deranged stockbroker murders his colleagues and wife before absconding with his two daughters to an isolated cabin to kill them. However, when he tries, he is attacked and killed by an entity. Five years later, his twin brother Lucas finds the abandoned girls and rescues them, not realizing that the thing from the cabin has followed them.
Back in suburbia, it becomes clear that the girls aren’t the only thing that has come back from the woods. Lucas is attacked and ends up in a coma while the girls refer to Mama, who protected and cared for them in the cabin. As the story unfolds, Mama’s origins become clear. To save the children, Mama has to be reunited with her lost child before she takes the two girls to the afterlife with her.
2014 Austrian psychological horror Goodnight Mommy sees twins Elias and Lukas begin to believe that their mother, who has returned from surgery, perhaps isn’t their mother at all. After having cosmetic surgery, Mother returns home wither face completely wrapped in bandages. Only her mouth and eyes are visible. The children are understandably scared of her appearance, but she also begins to act differently, ignoring Lukas and lashing out at Elias when he misbehaves.
The two boys tie her to the bed, interrogating her and burning her when she doesn’t answer in the way they want. They seal her mouth shut with superglue, then slice it open again so she can eat. The tension mounts and evolves into a grim and violent scenario as Mother desperately tries to convince her sons that she is their real parent.
2021 Netflix German-British film Blood Red Sky is a vampire movie that takes place aboard a hijacked airplane. Nadja and her son Elias board a plane heading to New York, so Nadja can seek treatment for leukemia. As the plane takes off, a group of men including the co-pilot murder the crew and air marshals and sabotage the black box. Taking the plane for ransom, the men spot Elias and Nadja attempting to hide, and Nadja is shot.
Unfortunately for the hijackers, Nadja is not dead from the gunshot. Instead, she is a vampire who is now enraged and on a mission to protect her son. As her true form is revealed, the fight to reclaim the hijacked plane begins with Nadja struggling to keep her bloodlust under control and failing as more passengers and hijackers become infected, and the sky turns red.
The first collaboration between A24 and Ari Aster, 2018’s Hereditary has become a modern classic of horror in a very short time. The films stars Toni Collette as matriarch Annie Graham, a miniature artist married to psychiatrist Steve (Gabriel Byrne) with two children, Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). After the death of Annie’s mother Ellen, the family begins to fall apart. More than that, they are continually beset by tragedy and supernatural events.
Praised for its unsettling atmosphere and nerve-shattering scares, Collette’s portrayal of a mother breaking down has garnered universal acclaim. To say more about the plot is to spoil it for those that haven’t watched, but the claustrophobic and horrific family tale is a must-see for horror fans.
Written, directed, and starring British comedian and actress Alice Lowe, Prevenge is a pitch-black horror comedy. It tells the story of widow Ruth, who is dealing with the sudden death of her husband and the impending birth of their child. Ruth becomes convinced that her unborn child is thirsty for revenge, and is compelling her to kill those involved in the accident that killed the child’s father. As her daughter’s birth draws nearer, Ruth becomes more and more sadistic in her murders. The comedy slowly leaches out of the film as she begins to delight in the stalking and murdering of those whom her baby demands must die.
Filmed in 2 weeks, while Lowe was heavily pregnant herself, Prevenge is a thoughtful, dark meditation on the terror of suddenly raising a child alone. Lowe perfectly portrays the spiral of a woman alone, fearful, and angry, offering a rare female insight into the pressures of motherhood and dealing with the depths of loneliness.
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