10. Patty McCormack as Mommy: Mommy (1995)
Patty McCormack, who portrayed the evil little girl in 1956's killer kid pic The Bad Seed, returns as an evil adult in the low-budget Mother's Day film. She plays the perfectionist mother of a 11-year-old honor student whom she believes should receive the Student of the Year award. When the girl doesn't win, Mommy takes things into her own hands.
9. Mama as herself: Mama (2013)
On the day that their parents die, sisters Lilly and Victoria vanish in the woods, prompting a frantic search by their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain). Five years later, miraculously, the girls are found alive in a decaying cabin, and Lucas and Annabel welcome them into their home. But as Annabel tries to reintroduce the children to a normal life, she finds that someone -- or something -- still wants to tuck them in at night.
8. Essie Davis as Amelia Vannick: The Babadook (2014)
A troubled widow (Essie Davis) discovers that her son is telling the truth about a monster that entered their home through the pages of a children's book. In the end what we learn is that the monster is a lot closer to this mother then we would have liked to believe.
7. Kathleen Turner as Beverly Sutphin: Serial Mom (1994)
In this indie crime/horror/thriller/comedy a seemingly perfect wife and mother (Kathleen Turner) from Baltimore gains celebrity status as a serial killer.
6. Rose Ross as Mother: Mother's Day (1980)
As our favorite horror movies continue to remind us, it takes a special kind of love for a mother to always be there for her demented offspring. Someone had to nourture their psychotic tendancies after all. Rose Ross does so with as much positive re-enforcement as a mother can provide.
5. Karen Black as Mother Firefly: House of 1,000 Corpses (2003)
Every psychotic family needs the most perfectly twisted matriarch to keep them all together and Karen Black is the iconic woman you want to portray her. If only we all had a mother as dedicated to her family.
4. Piper Laurie as Margaret White: Carrie (1976)
Margaret White is a religious fanatic, her extreme views primarily targeted against sex, which she believes is a sin. This stems from her belief that Carrie's father was the devil because he inpregnated her as a teenager and left her. Ms. White is the embodiment of adolescent catholic guilt and doesn't let an awkward teenage moment go by without reminding and punishing Carrie for sins not yet committed. As any parent would, she is there to protect her child from the sinful ways of the young and is probably the best mother at it.
3. Norma Bates as Herself : Psycho (1960)
As the influence behind Norman's behavior, Norma is able to reach beyond the grave and still influence her psychotic son, as any good mother would. Granted, she is really just a piece of bad taxidermy or in Norman's mind, but she still acts as his catholic guilt ridden conscious. Seems catholic guilt runs in a lot of these horror families.
2. Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford: Mommy Dearest (1981)
In this biographical film, glamorous yet lonely star Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) takes in two orphans, and at first their unconventional family seems happy. But after Joan's attempts at romantic fulfillment go sour and she is fired from her contract with MGM studios, her callous and abusive behavior towards her daughter Christina (Diana Scarwid) gets crazily out of hand. Reported as a bio-pic the scariest aspect of this film is the idea that it may have actually happened by one of the greatest icons of Hollywood.
1. Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees: Friday the 13th (1980)
I know we don't have to explain why we would say that Jason's mom is the number one best worst mother of horror. Once we get past the fact that Friday the 13th brought us several of the most important elements of slasher horror, Jason has a face that only a mother can love. Pamela Voorhees is the quintessential mother that not only loves her son to death, she will kill to prove it. If that's not enough she'll continue to influence Jason even after death. Death, disfiguration, and murder would never keep her from her son.
