Taglines: At least she meant well.
Serial Mom movie storyline. Beverly Sutphin appears to be a typical suburban housewife living with her dentist husband, Eugene, and their teenage children, Misty and Chip, in the suburbs of Baltimore. However, she is secretly a serial killer, murdering people over the most trivial of perceived slights, including mere faux pas.
During breakfast, Detectives Pike and Gracey arrive to question the family about the vulgar harassment of their neighbor, Dottie Hinkle. After the police and her family leave, Beverly disguises her voice to make obscene phone calls to Dottie, because Dottie stole a parking space from Beverly.
Later that day, Mr. Stubbins, Chip’s math teacher, becomes Beverly’s first known murder victim after he criticizes Chip’s interests and questions the boy’s mental health and family life, as well as berating her parenting; Beverly runs him over with her car, and is witnessed by Luann Hodges, a young woman smoking marijuana nearby. The next day, Misty is upset when Carl Pageant stands her up for a date. Beverly spots Carl with another girl at a swap meet and murders him in the bathroom with a fireplace poker.
Eugene discovers that Beverly has hidden a collection of serial killer memorabilia beneath their mattress. That evening at dinner, Chip comments that his friend Scotty thinks that she is the killer. Beverly immediately leaves in her car, prompting the family to rush to Scotty’s house for fear that Beverly plans to kill him.
However, Beverly has actually gone to kill Eugene’s patient Ralph Sterner and his wife, Betty, for calling Eugene away to treat her husband’s chronic toothache on a Saturday they were supposed to spend birdwatching and for eating chicken that reminds her of the starlings. She stabs Betty with scissors borrowed from Rosemary, and causes an air conditioner to fall on Ralph, who caught her killing his wife. Meanwhile, the rest of the family arrive at Scotty’s house only to find him in his room masturbating to an old porn video.
That Sunday, police follow the Sutphins to church and a news report names Beverly as the suspect in the murders of the Sterners. The church service ends in pandemonium when a suspicious sound causes everyone to panic and flee the church. Police detectives confirm that Beverly’s fingerprints match those at the Sterner crime scene and attempt to arrest her, but she escapes. She hides at the video rental store where Chip works, but a customer, Mrs. Jensen, argues with Chip over paying a fee for failing to rewind a videotape and calls him a “son of a psycho”.
Beverly follows Mrs. Jensen home and bludgeons her to death with a leg of lamb while she sings along to “Tomorrow” on her rented copy of Annie. Scotty witnesses the attack through a window, Beverly sees him, and a car chase ensues. Catching him at a local club, Hammerjack’s, Beverly sets Scotty aflame onstage in front of a deranged crowd during the set of an all-girl band called Camel Lips. The Sutphin family arrive, as do the police, and Beverly is arrested.
Serial Mom is a 1994 American black comedy crime film written and directed by John Waters, and starring Kathleen Turner as the title character, Sam Waterston as her husband, and Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard as her children. Patty Hearst, Suzanne Somers, Joan Rivers, Traci Lords, and Brigid Berlin make cameo appearances in the film. The film was released theatrically in the United States on April 13, 1994 to mixed to positive reviews from critics, but was a box office bomb, grossing nearly $8 million from a $13 million budget.
Serial Mom (1994)
Directed by: John Waters
Starring: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake , Matthew Lillard, Scott Morgan, Justin Whalin, Patricia Dunnock, Lonnie Horsey, Mink Stole, Traci Lords
Screenplay by: John Waters
Production Design by: Vincent Peranio
Cinematography by: Robert M. Stevens
Film Editing by: Janice Hampton, Erica Huggins
Costume Design by: Van Smith
Set Decoration by: Susan Kessel
Art Direction by: David J. Bomba
Music by: Basil Poledouris
MPAA Rating: R for satirical presentation of strong violence, vulgar language, and sexual episodes.
Distributed by: Savoy Pictures
Release Date: April 13, 1994
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