#Serial mom 1994 film movie#
#Serial mom 1994 film serial#

#Serial mom 1994 film serial#

While Serial Mom is a black comedy that gleefully lampoons situational family comedies from the fifties and sixties such as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver, it is also a scandalous critique of the cult of celebrity, especially serial killers. Several of the characters act dumb but it is Waters's statement that they may not be 'all there' and just not fully in-tune with their surroundings.Д«everly wants to lead her family in saying 'Grace'-or does she? Waters continually calls into question many of the characters' social mores and whether they are really 'prim and proper.' Waters slyly unpacks how they blindly follow societal norms and laws but are actually missing the more important aspects of them. For example, Beverly (and Waters) take perverted pleasure in hearing neighbor Dottie Hinkle (Mink Stole) scream and rail against her obscene phone calls. While Serial Mom has several autobiographical elements in it, Waters's film is also a dissection of middle-class domestic conformity and complacency in suburbia. She flattens the insect like a pancake and the shot of it being squashed foreshadows Beverly's 'killer' instinct. The mother is also irritated by a pesky fly and Waters ratchets some suspense as she keenly awaits to swat it. The opening credits sequence has the Sutphins chatting away at the kitchen table as Beverly prepares breakfast. His perky sister Misty (Ricki Lake) is boy-crazy and always on the lookout for her next best date. Their son Chip (Matthew Lillard) is a clerk at a video store specializing in gore-infested, shock horror films. Her affable husband Eugene Sutphin (Sam Waterston) is a dentist and committed husband and father.

Matriarch Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) is a proud homemaker active in her two teenage children's school functions. The Sutphin family live a sunny and idyllic life in an upper middle-class suburban neighborhood in Baltimore. Serial Mom's story is relatively simple but there are several layers of connotative meaning simmering beneath the surface. Equipped with the largest budget he had to date, Serial Mom allowed him to unleash his irreverent sensibilities while staying within the confines of a commercial 'R' rating. Waters has always prided himself as a crude and lewd satirist as well as a master of conflating trash with art. When Savoy Pictures unveiled Serial Mom to the public in spring of 1994, audiences either 'got' writer/director John Waters's underlying messages or they didn't. The satire is handled skilfully and at no point threatens to overwhelm what is essentially a very black comedy.Reviewed by Dr. Waters perfectly captures the essence of middle class, small town America, where the sun always shines and the gardens are immaculate. Waters regular Ricki Lake also puts in an appearance as the jilted daughter, completing a cast of excellent if little known performers. Kathleen Turner clearly relishes the role of the charming psychopath and she is well supported by Waterstone's dithering wimp of a husband. Silmilar to Oliver Stone's not yet released Natural Born Killers, Waters is satirising a media that turns criminals into heroes, a subject that has become even more topical in the light of recent events.

#Serial mom 1994 film movie#

As you may have guessed this is not your average murder thriller, Sutphin becomes a media sweetheart, complete with movie deals and her face on every tabloid cover in the country. Sutphin is a stickler for tradition, cooks perfect meatloaf and always recycles, she also just happens to commit the odd murder! Woe betide anyone who irritates this lady, as Sutphin does away with unfaithful boyfriends, concerned teachers and anyone else who just happens to get in the way. Turner is loving housewife Beverly Sutphin, dedicated to her dentist husband (Sam Waterstone) and two children. However, fans of Waters' twisted sense of humour have no reason to despair, this film is as warped as any of his previous endeavours and it features a star turn from Kathleen Turner as the eponymous er. John (II) Waters the king of cinema weird finally went mainstream last year with Serial Mom.