{"id":20386,"date":"2024-07-08T17:06:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T21:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=20386"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:47:34","slug":"serial-mom-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=20386","title":{"rendered":"Serial Mom-1994"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serial Mom-1994<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Waters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,432<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed July 8, 2024<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serial Mom (1994) is led by an uproarious performance by Kathleen Turner, in the 1990s still in her cinematic heyday, the latter-day John Waters comedy fires on all cylinders. She wickedly goes full steam ahead in a pulsating performance deliciously deserving of an Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n

The film is directed by Waters, known for perverse and gross-out fare like Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1975) so any chance for an Academy Award is laughable.<\/p>\n

Though, Serial Mom is much safer than those films choosing slick 1990s mainstream camerawork over raw shots of dogshit on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

Still, Turner hits it out of the park playing a ‘June Cleaver’ character with a murderous dark side.<\/p>\n

Beverly Sutphin (Turner) appears to be an unassuming upper-middle-class housewife living with her dentist husband Eugene (Sam Waterston) and their teenage children, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip (Matthew Lillard), in suburban Maryland.<\/p>\n

She is secretly a serial killer who kills people over trivial slights or offenses like insulting her son or blowing off her daughter. The dastardly mom uses creative weapons like her station wagon and a fire poker to kill her prey.<\/p>\n

Serial Mom is strictly for ravenous fans of Waters and I’m not sure it will win any new fans over. But I’ll stress how much of a mainstream affair it is compared to his more dangerous 1970s films.<\/p>\n

It pairs well in look and feel with Hairspray from 1988 and both films star Ricki Lake.<\/p>\n

Some have referred to it as a slasher film but that would steer it in the horror vein or knife-wielding maniac territory. Beverly isn’t Freddie, Jason, or Michael Meyers. She is fun and does as much damage with a sneer or a smirk as with a weapon.<\/p>\n

Beverly is also the type of woman you’d like to be friends with but are terrified of crossing. After all, she kills in the defense of her kids so she’s a good mother with a wicked sense of humor.<\/p>\n

When she delights in crank-calling her neighbor Dottie Hinkle (deliciously played by Waters’s regular Mink Stole) to get a rise out of her, we cheer her on.<\/p>\n

Later, when charged and sent to trial for her dirty deeds, she fires her attorney and takes over her case amid rabid fan response. Beverly becomes a local hero.<\/p>\n

She’s a cinema villain to remember.<\/p>\n

Waters is great because he finds the perfect balance of camp and wit to make a smart film not merely a slapstick one. Many cinema comedies don’t work because the laughs feel canned instead of fresh.<\/p>\n

The writing and the cast make Serial Mom a winner.<\/p>\n

The ridiculous antics and situations Beverly gets involved in make the audience want to know what she does next. Who doesn’t love a well-to-do character who turns sinister? It’s fun to watch a rich suburban town turn into a shit show of high entertainment.<\/p>\n

Besides Stole, my favorite supporting actors are Mary Jo Catlett and Matthew Lillard. Catlett has brilliant comic timing as a neighbor, Rosemary, while Lillard was on the cusp of becoming a horror\/comedy star with 1996’s Scream.<\/p>\n

Regarding cameos, I could have done without the Suzanne Somers cameo playing herself which didn’t land all that funny but Patty Hearst as juror #8 is a winner.<\/p>\n

The ‘white shoes after Labor Day’ sequence is hysterical.<\/p>\n

Serial Mom (1994) is a cult classic for the ages and on par with most of John Waters earlier, classic raunchy comedies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial Mom-1994 Director John Waters Starring Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake Scott’s Review #1,432 Reviewed July 8, 2024 Grade: A- Serial Mom (1994) is led by an uproarious performance by Kathleen Turner, in the 1990s still in her cinematic heyday, the latter-day John Waters comedy fires on all cylinders. She wickedly goes full steam … Continue reading Serial Mom-1994<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,49,179,3022,136,1562,5067,9233,5066,956,5070,1591,5065,207,10040,5069,5068],"tags":[119,252,180,3028,137,1568,5073,9239,5072,959,5076,1597,5071,208,10043,5075,5074],"class_list":["post-20386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1994-films","category-comedies","category-darkcomedies","category-joan-rivers","category-johnwaters","category-kathleen-turner","category-mary-jo-catlett","category-mary-vivian-pearce","category-matthew-lillard","category-mink-stole","category-patty-hearst","category-ricki-lake","category-sam-waterston","category-satires","category-susan-lowe","category-suzanne-somers","category-traci-lords","tag-1994-movie-reviews","tag-comedies","tag-dark-comedies","tag-joan-rivers","tag-john-waters-films","tag-kathleen-turner","tag-mary-jo-catlett","tag-mary-vivian-pearce","tag-matthew-lillard","tag-mink-stole","tag-patty-hearst","tag-ricki-lake","tag-sam-waterston","tag-satires","tag-susan-lowe","tag-suzanne-somers","tag-traci-lords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20386"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20395,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20386\/revisions\/20395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}