Flesh-Eating Mothers — Flesh-Eating Mothers( Blu Ray & DVD)
Flesh-Eating Mothers appeared in 1988, and was the first film directed/ written by James Aviles Martin- he only went onto direct/write two other films- Artwatch, a 2003 documentary about art restoration, and Diega!- a 2011 drama/ fantasy set in the Latino community of Corona, Queens. Flesh Eating Mothers is competent enough in its shooting/ pacing, as it is the use of gore, which is often splatter bound. Where things do fall down a little is the extremely mixed acting- this goes from bland reading-off- autocue, campy & innuendo-filled that drifts into porn like acting, and just passable B movie acting- so really you have to be prepared for this issue before pressing play- as at times it’s decidedly trying.
The film is set in small-town America- where a group of mothers contract a Venereal Disease, which turns them into flesh-ripping monsters. A group of teens( who look more like 30) decide to save the day with the help of a short mustached doctor & Amazonian nurse. The mother's steady mutation is done effectively enough- and within the end they have set rictus full of teeth that rip/ tear both flesh, organs & steel(!)- with set blacked eyes, classic outstretched zombie arms, but still making mum talk quips. When the gore appears- which is fairly often- it's nicely spurting, ripping & fairly impressive with the mothers ripping off limbs, pulling off faces, and gut ripping.
The more quirky/off-key moments, that will appeal to fans of bad/wonky film making, come in the often jarring switch in tone of the film. One moment you can be knee-deep in darkly leering & gore ripping mayhem soundtracked by brooding & off-kilter tribal industrial synth-scape, then with a sudden swift we’re in 50’s B movie campiness with a haphazard easy listening soundtrack, before we jerk off into 80’s teen chessy with a new wave synth & guitar fare. Both the soundtrack & tone is all over the place throughout, which thankful knocks out some of the possibly more plodding moments.
Moving onto this new dual Blu Ray & DVD presentation of the film- first off the new print is a 2k scan from the original 16mm print, and is good enough, though in places due to the darkness of some of the scenes is still a little murky. On the extras front, we get a commentary from the films director/writer James Martin, and film historian/author Michael Gingold- this finds the pair discussing how Martin first got involved in film on the set of Troma produced slasher Splatter University- which made him switch from studying art-to-film. How the film's story came about, and it’s original name Mothers. Moving onto discuss the various cast, locations & more. It’s a good enough-if-fairly standard directors track. Next, we get two-shot on film interviews with the director, and films producer- these each last around the fifteen-minute mark. We lastly get a short directors intro to the film, and VS normal reversible cover
If you've enjoyed other 80’s horror fare that VS has put out of late- I reckon you’ll get a kick out of Flesh Eating Mothers- certainly not the best of this type of film the label has uncovered, but there is certainly some worthy off-kilter-ness & splatter gore found here.