5 of the Worst Mothers in Horror Movies Who Probably Don’t Deserve a Mother’s Day Brunch

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the moms in your life. Give ’em a call, or even better, spend some quality time with them over brunch and maybe a movie. But if your mother is anything like some of the worst moms in horror cinema, maybe just use Mother’s Day as a time to catch up on some reading. Or, you could watch movies about awful mothers. Collected here are five of the absolute worst mothers in horror. Which moms would you add to the list?

Annie Graham

Hereditary (2018)

Annie’s mother Ellen may ultimately be responsible for the fracturing of the Graham family in Hereditary, but Annie is an awful mom herself. At times we see Annie try to make amends for past behavior towards her son Peter, but at other times she seems completely oblivious to the obvious pain her son is going through. And at other times, like in the intensely uncomfortable dinner scene, Annie is openly antagonistic towards her son. Sure, there is a lot going on in the background, and Annie has her own trauma to deal with, but Annie’s actions make an already horrific situation even worse in Hereditary.

Sue Ann Ellington

Ma (2019)

In Ma, Sue Ann Ellington does her best to make friends with the local high-school kids. Known as “Ma” by the teens, Sue Ann buys them alcohol and lets them use her basement as a party room where they can do pretty much whatever they want. Sue Ann acts very differently towards her own daughter Genie, whom Sue Ann abuses out of sight of the other kids. Not only that, but Ma has a seriously dark ulterior motive for ingratiating herself with the teenagers of her town. Without spoiling too much, her motives involve a lot of murder.

Vera Cosgrove

Dead Alive (1992)

In Dead Alive, Lionel Cosgrove is a timid man living with his elderly and overbearing mother Vera. Vera wants to keep Lionel all to herself, so when Lionel starts to become romantically interested in a pretty woman named Paquita, Vera does everything she can to keep them apart. Vera’s spying leads to her getting bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey which leads to her death and revival as a zombie. Lionel still feels indebted to his domineering mother, so even in death Vera manages to overtake Lionel’s life as he tries to keep his mother hidden. And from there, things go even further off the rails in hilariously gory ways.

Margaret White

Carrie (1976)

Carrie White is a young woman going through changes, but her fanatically religious mother Margaret shows her no support. When Carrie has her first period as the movie Carrie begins, Margaret says her natural bodily functions are the result of sin. Margaret also has a “prayer closet” for Carrie which she locks her daughter in whenever she feels Carrie needs to atone for whatever imagined sins Carrie has committed. Their relationship fractures even further when Margaret learns of Carrie’s emerging telekinetic powers, leading to a deadly confrontation between mother and daughter.

Ellie

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

A mother wanting to be close to her children is great, but a mother telling her kids that she wants to cut them open and crawl inside their bodies so they can be one happy family is a bit too far. In Evil Dead Rise, Ellie says this to her three children while getting accustomed to her new role as a Deadite. You could argue that it’s the demon inside and not really Ellie saying these things, but from her kids’ point of view, their mother is now trying to kill them in horribly violent ways.