10 Greatest Mom Horror Movies To Chill Your Blood

Evil Dead Rise is a recent addition to the annals of horror movies based around moms. Most notably, Evil Dead II had a very memorable mother, Henrietta, but Evil Dead Rise has not one but two moms battling each other to save who they can or to turn everyone into demons. Ellie is a great mom, but she will do everything possible to turn her other children once she is possessed. Beth, her guitar tech sister, is thrust into the position of a surrogate mom to Ellie's kids and is pregnant. This is a horror movie mom battle royale.

James Cameron's Aliens features another one of horror's ultimate battles between moms. Ripley, separated from her daughter forever because of the Company's actions, essentially adopts Newt, the lone survivor of the colony on LV-426. The mother Alien is only trying to protect her children but also trying to use every available human being as a host. Ripley does battle with the mother Alien and utters that all-time favorite line. You know the one I am talking about. Mothers will do anything to protect their children. Read more: The Strangers Reboot Trilogy Coming In 2024 From Lionsgate.

Michelle Garza Cervera's film Huesera: The Bone Woman is an elegant horror film about a mom, Valeria (Natalia Solián), who is conflicted about being a mom at all. As the otherworldly horror threatens her child, she turns to a female group of witches to help her rid herself of the evil spirit that is pursuing them. This is for the women who are uncomfortable with the idea of motherhood but will still fight tooth and nail for their child's life. Read more: Huesera And Birthing As Horror.

Margaret White is a powerful force as a mother, but one that also adds to her daughter Carrie's torment. She is the source of Carrie's problems in school because of her religious upbringing, which makes her seem strange to her classmates. However, Margaret's later actions, including her attempt to stab Carrie, are based on her deeply held belief that what she is doing will save Carrie's soul. She truly believes what she is doing is correct, but she is deluded. Margaret cannot accept Carrie's powers, so she becomes convinced that Carrie is evil, unfortunately the same conclusion that almost everyone else comes to by the film's end.

Jobeth Williams's character, Diane Freeling, in Poltergeist, doesn't get nearly enough attention for her heroic behavior to save her daughter Carol Anne in the film. As a mom in a horror movie, she goes to unheard-of lengths, including going into the afterlife, to get her daughter back. Steven and Diane Freeling are loving parents intent on their children's well-being and are cool moms and dads. When the entity focuses first on Carol Anne and then on Diane after Carol Anne disappears, Diane is forced to reckon with the evil spirit herself but with the support of Steven and the medium Tangina.

Nola Carveth is a mom in a horror movie not of her own making. As a child, she was subjected to abuse and now cannot deal with her feelings and actions. To make things worse, she is being treated by a psychotherapist whose theories and methods make things worse because he doesn't understand Nola's power or the depth of her rage. Nola's mother hurt her, and her father refused to protect her, making her very angry. When her husband tries to divorce her, she sees it as a similar betrayal and abandonment. Her "children of anger" commit rage-induced murders that Nola cannot commit herself. Read more: Eaten Alive: Underwater Creatures And The Abyss.

Larry Cohen's film It's Alive has horror centered on the mom who gave birth to a baby that was a homicidal monster. While she doesn't mean to do anything wrong, as the child's mother, she feels she must protect the baby even though it is killing people. It's the other side of the protective urge that family members feel for each other, which can frequently turn bad. Family members, especially parents, cannot accept that their child might be capable of doing wrong, and even when confronted with the facts, they often retreat into denial. Sharon Farrell's character, Lenore, hides the baby even though she knows what it does because she feels protective and knows that the child is frightened. Her husband comes to a similar realization.

Lupita Nyong'o in the dual role of Addy and Red in Jordan Peeles's Us is a complex portrait of horror motherhood. Both versions of the character, Addy and the tethered Red, want nothing more than to save their families. Both of them fight fiercely for their lives and the lives of their children and husbands. The question in the film and its sinister answer is about who is really who, but at its most fundamental level, it is about a mother's love for her family and shows the ruthless lengths to which a mother will go.

Motherhood has always been a big part of the Scream franchise. The ghost of Maureen Prescott has haunted the series since the first film. Her fling with Billy Loomis' father gave Billy (Skeet Ulrich) the excuse to become Ghostface. However, in Scream 2, Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), aka Debbie Salt, is the real Ghostface who uses her partner in the murders, Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), as the scapegoat for the crimes and her revenge for Billy's death. She is driven to kill Sydney (Neve Campbell) because she killed Billy. Her guilt and her need to avenge Billy are the reasons for the return of Ghostface to Windsor College.

In The Lodge, Alicia Silverstone, as Laura Hall, dies because she can't face being divorced emotionally, and her children unwisely blame their father's new fiancée, Grace, and torment her when their father, Richard, leaves them alone with her. When the children deprive Grace of her medication, although they might not realize the potential consequences, she has a nervous breakdown and becomes homicidal. Grace only wanted to be an excellent mother and wasn't responsible for their father's actions. The irony is that Grace probably would have been a much more caring parent than their father, had she not been driven over the edge.