The 25 Craziest Moms In Movies

Be happy you didn't slide out of these nutjobs.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Hollywood loves mothers. The sculptors of our psyche, mothers can act as the ideal rhetorical device, shedding light on the script in a way few characters can. Or, in the case of this weekend's horror romp, Mother's Day, darkness.

This Friday, vile mothers will return to theaters in the remake of Charles Kaufman's Troma 1980 original, Mother's Day. But instead of a satirical B-movie about backwoods boys being domineered by an evil elderly mother, you'll get the ever sexy Rebecca De Mornay, and a fresh take on matriarchal malevolence. Mother's Day might seem like your everyday home invasion plot on the surface—three brothers drop in on a house party and take the attendees hostage—until De Mornay saunters in as the sinister "mother" and drums up the depravity. Not inclined to take the high road, De Mornay takes delight in torturing her son's captives, and urging her boys to do the same.

Mother's Day isn't the first flick to include a mom whose maternal instincts are out of whack. Many films routinely overturn the the domesticated ideal, forgoing nurturers in favor of mentally frail women who are better suited to destroy than discipline. Here are the women who will make you thankful for the wonderfully unexceptional insanity of your own mother: The 25 Craziest Moms In Movies. If this doesn't inspire you to dial up 1-800-Flowers and send Ma Dukes roses after reading, we don't know what could.

Written by Shanté Cosme (@ShanteCosme)

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25. Sarah Polley as Elsa in Splice (2009)

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24. Elizabeth Moody as Vera Cosgrove in Dead Alive (1992)

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23. Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli in The Goonies (1985)

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22. Jacki Weaver as Janine "Smurf" Cody in Animal Kingdom (2011)

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21. Wendie Robie as Mommy in The People Under the Stairs (1991)

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20. Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Eleanor Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

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19. Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna in Casino (1995)

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18. Terri Hatcher as Other Mother in Coraline (2009)

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17. Annette Bening as Deirdre Burroughs in Running with Scissors (2006)

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16. Diane Ladd as Marietta Fortune in Wild at Heart (1990)

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15. Amy Ryan as Helene McCready in Gone Baby Gone (2007)

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14. Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967)

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13. Jamie Lee Curtis as Jude Madigan in Mother's Boys (1994)

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12. Victoria Tennant as Corinne Dollanganger Flowers in the Attic (1987)

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11. Barbara Hershey as Erica in Black Swan (2010)

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10. Anjelica Huston as Lilly Dillon in The Grifters (1990)

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9. Kathleen Turner as Beverly Sutphin as Serial Mom (1994)

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8. Virginia Gregg as Norma Bates in Psycho (1960)

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7. Beatrice Pons as Mother in Mother’s Day (1980)

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6. Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest (1981)

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5. Rebecca De Mornay as Peyton Flanders in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

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4. Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees in Friday the 13th (1980)

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3. Mo'Nique as Mary in Precious (2009)

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2. Blanche Baker as Aunt Ruth in The Girl Next Door (2007)

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1. Piper Laurie as Margaret White in Carrie (1976)

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