BAD MOMS: Evil does it for these movie matriarchs
LaVona Golden (Allison Janney in I, Tonya, 2017) Janney got a much-deserved best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Tonya Harding’s foulmouthed, chain-smoking, parrotwearing mama. Janney’s character relentlessly psychologically abuses Harding and hinders her career. If cruelty were an Olympic sport, Golden would be golden. Momma (Anne Ramsey in Throw Momma From the Train, 1987) In this darkly comedic twist on Hitchcock’s suspenseful Strangers on a Train, momma’s boy Owen (Danny DeVito) wants to kill his mother. Why? In Ramsey’s hands, Momma is foul-mouthed, racist, demanding and cruel. June Cleaver she’s not. Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, 1981) A fading and bitter movie legend vents her anger and neuroses as verbal and physical abuse toward her adopted daughter: “I told you: No wire coat hangers! Ever!”
The evil stepmother (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937)
No one does evil stepmoms like Disney. While Cinderella’s step-mom banishes her to the attic, Snow White’s murderous Queen Grimhilde (voiced by Lucille La Verne) takes the cake. She hires a huntsman to kill her stepdaughter after a magic mirror tells her Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) is the “fairest” of them all. When that fails, she tries the ol’ poison apple trick.
Norma Bates (Psycho, 1960)
What kind of a mom raises her son to be a cruel, woman-hating serial killer? Not a very good one. Norma’s possibly incestuous relationship with son Norman (Anthony Perkins) fuels the tension in this Alfred Hitchcock classic.