Coming out of seeing 1988's Flesh-Eating Mothers for the first time in twenty years, I can fully admit to you that it is not a good movie. It often falls victim to horrible acting and its low-budget origins but, at the same time, I'm not going to deny to you that I wasn't entertained by the ineptness on display. What makes it all the more appealing is that you're never quite sure the intention of co-writer/director James Aviles Martin and just how much of the film was purposely slipshod. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing here to appeal to fans of serious horror but, if you happen to be looking for a slice of inanity that littered video store shelves in the late 80's and you can watch it with a like-minded individual to poke fun at it during its 86 minutes, then this might be right up your alley.

First, take a look at that poster art. It's pretty obvious why someone like myself, who at the age of fourteen when it came out and with a tendency to watch any form of horror flick, would instantly rent it. There's something to be said about the power of a disheveled looking crazy-lady with a pot full of human gumbo. Comparisons to Belgium's Rabid Grannies aren't unfounded, even if this never reaches the insanity (or gore levels) of that Troma import.

Welcome to small-town America. It's just your usual slice of the suburbs where the men go to work and the women stay home to raise the children and take care of all the chores. It's all very "Leave it to Beaver". However, this idyllic burg will soon become victim to a sexually transmitted virus that has the ability to turn whoever contracts it into flesh-hungering cannibals. And, wouldn't you know it, this is happening to all the housewives who've all been having an affair with the town's local "stud".

At first, the virus just makes these V.D. infested mothers really, really hungry giving us scenes of the actresses continually stuffing their faces full of food. That's not quite enough to satisfy their new hunger and they're soon eyeing up their offspring with thoughts of filling their bellies with their delicious "meat".

This leads to many moments of silly comedy, low-grade but amusing attack scenes (the guy holding onto the turkey baster filled with fake blood has a field day), and a whole bunch of laugh inducing dialogue including a mind-boggling sequence where a mother tries to force feed her son milk and talks about veal as well as the memorable line: "What are we supposed to do? Stay here and have our asses chewed out by our mothers?"

There are some dragged out moments in the mid-section and the way they stop the cannibal mothers is pretty ridiculous but there's enough lowbrow scenes of skin munching and, in what resorts to the flick's "money shot" moment and surely where they spent much of their effects budget, a pretty decent looking scene where someone has their nose ripped off.

As mentioned above, the acting here is atrocious. With plentiful wooden line-reading and High School drama club level emoting, it can get sometimes painful to watch. The teenage cast members make for dopey heroes, Michael Fuer (playing the town's scientist who uncovers the virus) does such a bad job saying his lines without absolutely no infection that it becomes hilarious, and our group of cannibal moms get to stumble around looking like Joker rejects from "Batman" while wondering if they left the iron on. It's quite amazing to see that Valorie Hubbard, who is by far the worst of our teen actors playing dumb blonde Joyce, has actually gone on to appear in over thirty movies and television shows in smaller roles.

By now, you'll know if Flesh-Eating Mothers is for you. I myself was amused to learn that Martin was also responsible for writing the quite amusing, quite shoddy, flick I Was a Teenage Zombie a year prior. Which, judging from the groanable comedy on display here, makes sense. I'd suggest getting together some friends and pairing them both up for an evening of harebrained fun. (Chris Hartley, 9/25/11)

Directed By: James Aviles Martin.
Written By: James Aviles Martin, Zev Shlasinger.

Starring: Robert Lee Oliver, Donatella Hecht, Neal Rosen, Valorie Hubbard.