10 Horror Movie Characters Who Were Perfectly Cast (The Second Time)
5. Mother - Rebecca De Mornay (Mother's Day)
The Original
Charles Kaufman's 1980 rape-revenge slasher flick Mother's Day focuses on two brothers who kidnap, brutalise, and murder young women in an attempt to appease their mother, played with campy glee by Beatrice Pons (credited as Rose Ross).
Outside of Pons' go-for-broke performance, though, it's a pretty hit-and-miss affair.
Second Time's The Charm
For Darren Lynn Bousman's incredibly loose 2010 remake, though, he shrewdly cast Rebecca De Mornay in the role of Mother - named here as Natalie Koffin - and to say she's a major upgrade is quite the understatement indeed.
Rather than shoot for the moon with overdone histrionics, De Mornay gives a more subdued, plausibly calculating performance as a woman forcefully taking control of a fraught hostage situation.
If Pons' work is entertaining but disposable, De Mornay's has a visceral, difficult-to-shake quality to it, even as she bounces between wholesomeness and unhinged sociopathy.
De Mornay is impressive enough that even though the remake received predominantly mixed-to-negative reviews, many detractors singled out her performance as the easy highlight.