You'll Like My Mother 1972

[bigshot]

I screened Shout Factory's blu-ray of this last night. I had never seen the film before. I liked it... It fits in that 70s genre of bee-yotch queen horror movies that included Who Slew Auntie Roo? and Whatever Happened to Aunt Helen? The casting is very strange, with both Patty Duke and Richard Thomas cast totally against type, but they are both fantastic actors and pulled it off perfectly.

The film is VERY suspenseful and uncomfortable- almost too much so. But that is a good thing. The retarded "sister/cousin" was a nice touch and gave John Boy someone to beat up instead of pregnant Patty Duke. Great spooky old house! One of the best I've seen in movies, and they really lit it and staged using it fantastically as well.

The transfer is perfect to my eyes with good skin tones and lots of detail in the exterior snow scenes. Inside the house, the shadows are deliberately dialed down to pitch black, so there isn't a lot of detail in the shadows, but that is a 70s cinematic style choice, not a problem with the transfer. It kind of feels like an episode of Night Gallery, which isn't surprising because it's a Universal picture produced by Bing Crosby Productions. But it was shot entirely on location in Wisconsin which breaks it out of the TV backlot mold. (I wonder if that cool spooky house is still there?!)

Overall, a nice gritty 70s suspense roller coaster ride with all kinds of subtexts and sick ideas that rarely are allowed in movies any more. Glad I got it.