Crazy Muthas: Scary Movie Mommies

The standard for crazy mothers was set by the brow-beating Mrs. Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho. It takes a truly special lady to be that shrill and overbearing from beyond the grave.

Horror showman William Castle, who directed the original House on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts, teamed with an aging Joan Crawford and her creepy eyebrows in this tale of a woman who's locked up in a mental hospital for 20 years for decapitating her husband and his mistress. When she's released and reunites with her daughter, people mysteriously start turning up headless. Coincidence? Hardly.

A domineering mother keeps her 20-something son in an infantile state with intimidation, abuse and the occasional electric cattle prod in this twisted cult favorite.

If Norman Bates' mother were alive and as psychotic as he is, she'd turn out like the matriarch in this British production. Although she spent 18 years in the loony bin, Dorothy still has the compulsion to kill -- and sometimes eat -- with a particular fondness for ye olde electric drill.

This religious spitfire of a mother shows her Christian spirit by beating her daughter with a bible and locking her in a closet. That'll teach you to show off your telekinesis! In the end, though, she's right; things probably would've turned out better is Carrie had just skipped prom. Sometimes, even crazy mommas know best.

Before Jason ever hurt a fly, Mrs. Vorhees was bumping off campers faster than malaria and dysentery combined. And she must've been pumping iron -- or human grown hormones -- to be able to toss people through windows like she did. At least we know where Jason gets his bedside manner.

This cult flick is I think supposed to be a satire of "rape and revenge" exploitation films like I Spit on Your Grave, but it never really gels, deteriorating into the same sleaziness it's parodying. The movie's titular "mother" is a backwoods old lady in a neck brace who trains her two dimwitted sons to become rapists and murderers. They put their skills to the test kidnapping and torturing a trio of female campers. Hilarious.

Horrific in its own right, this biopic of actress Joan Crawford as seen through the eyes of her adopted daughter has become a camp classic, thanks to the over-the-top performance by Faye Dunaway. Repeat after me: "NO...WIRE...HANGERS...EVER!!!"

Like Mommie Dearest on crack, this fun urban fairy tale from Wes Craven features a deranged mother seeking daughterly perfection -- even if she has to stab it out of her.

In Peter Jackson's hilariously over-the-top splatter fest, Lionel's domineering mum is bitten by a rat-monkey (?) and turns into the mother of all zombies -- creating a horde of living dead and eventually growing into a 20-foot-tall behemoth. Talk about Big Momma's House.