Movies Gallery 12 movies with terrifying moms Be glad you didn't grow up in the houses of these scary movie moms. By Christian Holub Christian Holub Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled. EW's editorial guidelines and Clark Collis Clark Collis Senior Writer EW's editorial guidelines Updated on September 23, 2022 01:35PM EDT Close Photo: Radius When it comes to tapping into subconscious fears on film, there's nothing quite like an antagonistic mother. Some are of a distinctly violent nature, while others get under our skin for manipulating their children and abusing their power. Classic scary moms like Norma Bates, Mrs. Voorhees, and Margaret White have rightly earned their place in horror movie history, but we're just as terrified by the chilling depictions of motherhood in dramas like The Manchurian Candidate, Precious, and Black Swan. Here are our picks for the 12 most terrifying movie moms, some of which continue to haunt our dreams all these years later. 01 of 12 Umma — Umma (2022) Sandra Oh in 'Umma'. Saeed Adyani/Sony Pictures Many years after escaping the less-than-kind clutches of her mother, Sandra Oh's Amanda is living an idyllic life of beekeeping with her own daughter, Chrissy (Fivel Stewart). Things turn from sweet to sour to terrifying in writer-director Iris K. Shim's ghost story when the remains of Amanda's dead mom are delivered to the pair's remote farm. How the director of Umma made one mother of a horror movie 02 of 12 The Mother — Goodnight Mommy (2015) RADiUS-TWC After extensive facial surgery, the eponymous mother (Susanne Wuest) in this Austrian horror film — remade in 2022 with Naomi Watts — certainly looks terrifying, covered in bandages and headgear. The question of what lies underneath those bandages (and what her twin boys do to find out) is even scarier. —Christian Holub The Big Little Lies twins say Goodnight Mommy to Naomi Watts in eerie new trailer for horror remake 03 of 12 Norma Bates — Psycho (1960) Paramount Pictures Norma Bates may not actually be the killer in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, but her spirit is still the driving force behind Norman's (Anthony Perkins) deeds. The one time she does physically appear (as a desiccated skeleton) is one of the most terrifying, game-changing moments in horror history. —C.H. Psycho: The horror movie that changed the genre 04 of 12 Margaret White — Carrie (1976) Everett Collection In a movie full of pig's blood, telekinetic destruction, and mass murder, the scariest thing is still Carrie White's (Sissy Spacek) mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie, in an Oscar-nominated performance). Her cruel punishments, borne out of stubborn adherence to misguided religious fundamentalism, are the cause of all the movie's pain. —C.H. The best Stephen King movie and TV adaptations 05 of 12 Mrs. Voorhees — Friday the 13th (1980) Paramount Pictures Hockey-masked Jason Voorhees is a horror movie legend, but he still doesn't hold a candle to the original monster of Friday the 13th: his mother. In a reverse Psycho dynamic, Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) carried out the original Camp Crystal Lake murders in the name of her drowned son. —C.H. All of the Friday the 13th movies, ranked 06 of 12 Beverly Sutphin — Serial Mom (1994) Everett Collection John Waters loves to reveal the sadism lurking just beneath the façade of the American dream, and Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) was a perfect vessel for this project. Beverly never wavers in her mission to protect her nuclear family, even if it includes beating a neighbor to death with a leg of lamb and killing another woman for wearing white shoes after Labor Day. —C.H. Serial Mom: An oral history of John Waters' comedy classic 07 of 12 Erica Sayers — Black Swan (2010) Fox Searchlight Erica (Barbara Hershey) says she only wants the best for her ballerina daughter, Nina (Natalie Portman). But as the movie goes on, it becomes clear that the pressure she exerts is the cause of Nina's fragile mental state. —C.H. Black Swan: Why it's the swoon-for-it-or-not movie of the season 08 of 12 Mary Lee Johnston — Precious (2009) Lionsgate Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) faces many horrors — teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, HIV — but her abusive mother (Mo'Nique) is by far the most terrifying. Mary's many depravities (which include beating her daughter and purposefully dropping her baby grandchild) are so visceral they've made their way into rap lyrics. —C.H. Precious: An unlikely indie phenom 09 of 12 Mama — Mama (2013) Universal Pictures Mama starts off bleak, as a down-on-his-luck father (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) takes his young children out to the woods with plans of murder-suicide. What happens instead is somehow even worse: The girls are taken in by a vengeful demonic entity calling itself "Mama," who refuses to leave them alone even after their eventual rescue. —C.H. Mama review 10 of 12 Mrs. Iselin — The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Everett Collection Released at the height of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate visualized all of America's fears about enemy infiltration. As the manipulative mother of a brainwashed army veteran, Angela Lansbury's Mrs. Iselin memorably demonstrated — decades before Homeland—that sometimes the greatest threat is right at home. —C.H. Janet Leigh on original Manchurian Candidate 11 of 12 Joan Crawford — Mommie Dearest (1981) Paramount Pictures Whether or not it was completely accurate, Christina Crawford's account of the abuse she suffered from her famous adoptive mother Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) is more terrifying than most monster stories. —C.H. Feud: Jessica Lange talks Joan Crawford's tragic background 12 of 12 Annie Graham — Hereditary (2018) A24 Toni Collette set a new bar for scary moms with her performance in Hereditary. Introduced as a miniatures artist who doesn't seem that distressed by her mother's recent death, Annie Graham does start to come unraveled once the family starts to become wracked by other disasters (such as her son's accidental decapitation of his sister!) and occult phenomena. A lot of the horror in Hereditary comes from how terrifying Collette plays demonic possession, and how seamlessly Annie's familial frustrations transition into supernatural evil. Chris Evans raving about Toni Collette in Hereditary to Toni Collette is all of us