MY MOM’S A WEREWOLF (1989)
Tagline: Jennifer's mother is having an identity crisis.
(Horror, Comedy, Creepy Pet Shop Owners) [PG]
In this one, a disgruntled mom ventures into a pet shop. The pet shop owner has uncanny powers which he uses to lure her into liking him enough to almost sleep with him. During that incident she is turned into a freakin werewolf and now must adjust to her new out-of-the-ordinary cravings. Meanwhile, her daughter Jennifer decides to not only figure out if her mom is cheating on her dad but what is causing her mom’s sudden change in behavior. Along the way, she enlists the help of her horror movie fanatic friend Stacey. Can they stop their mom from running off with one of the Pet Shop Boys? Pun intended.
Sometimes you watch a movie and by the end, you are kind of like…” that wasn’t bad at all”, but then you start digging into it and you remember that Harry Thropen (played by John Saxon best known for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) has enough sexually creepy lines it makes you feel like Dr. Peter Venkman from GHOSTBUSTERS was just a normal dude. The plotline between Harry and Leslie (played by Susan Blakely) was so awful that it basically tears this otherwise kind of interesting movie out of the comedy realm into the just creepy realm.
Overall the acting isn’t bad. Jennifer, which a lot of the movie is centered is Leslie, the werewolf's daughter. She is played by Tina Caspary who only had one lead role in a movie and this was it. Best known for CAN’T BUY ME LOVE, she went on to star in one more TV show and quit acting in 1994. Leslie, the main actress is played by Susan Blakely who is likely best known for a few appearances on the TV show “This Is Us”. I did not like her character, but she was fine in the role. We also get an energetic performance out of Diana Barrows who plays Jennifer’s best friend Stacey. Diana Barrows is most famous for playing the shy nerdy girl “Maddy” in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD. As mentioned before this was a really creepy outing for John Saxon who has no issue playing bad guys. I guess he was okay acting-wise, but we get some pretty rough stuff out of everyone else including Jennifer’s father Howard (played by John Schuck). I will say that at the very least Jennifer’s father is somewhat likable because he learns something and makes amends. In fact, he is the only character with any character growth.
Effects wise the werewolf designs are better than a lot of the werewolf stuff out there, but the changing (werewolf to humor or vice versa) scenes are horribly bad. I mean, if you are going through the effort to kill it on the werewolf facial designs why not put some effort into the transformation scene. It’s not like we didn’t have the practical effects at the time to pull that off.
Some horror fans will find this movie entertaining, but for me, it lands at a just okay 3 out of 7. It could have been so much more than it was with a better script. What we do get is a bit of a hot mess with very few things to root. Even the more gory parts seem thrown in.
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