Imagine this: the main character is a woman called Beverly Sutphin. Her husband is a dentist and she does her best to bring up her children. In short, she is a respectable human being with the particularity of being a real stickler for good manners . Maybe, a little too respectable so that when someone speaks ill of one member of her family, Beverly is ready to kill to defend her family!

Only one filmmaker seemed designated to shot this highly entertaining black comedy: John Waters, the king of bad taste and extravagance. In "Serial Mom", most of the comical situations are structured about the two quoted characteristics. The whole is condensed in one hour and a half. You don't get bored one moment and you honestly laugh in front of all these murders. In "Serial Mom", you also recognize Waters' strong taste for bloody, gore and horror movies. Moreover, for this extraordinary director, it is the occasion to harm the model image of the American family.

All in all, a delightfully politically incorrect comedy led by a Kathleen Turner on top form.

This is probably one of John Waters' most approachable films for the mass audience--along with CRY BABY and HAIRSPRAY. Unlike Waters' earlier films, which were meant for a niche audience (i.e., weird people--and I don't mean that derogatorily). So if you are looking for the ultra-low budget over-the-top films starring Divine, you may be disappointed that this film has a lot more polish and higher production values. However, this is NOT to say that SERIAL MOM is normal--just a lot more normal than these earlier flicks. Plus, this is one of the few Waters films you can watch with your kids--provided they are older and not terribly impressionable!

Kathleen Turner turns in her best performance as a combination between June Cleaver and Ted Bundy--complete with the pearl necklace. This movie, start to finish, is very funny and a great satiric look at life in the suburbs. In addition, like his later CECIL B. DEMENTED, it's an interesting satire that is a way over the top look at America's fascination with celebrity and how we admire and are fascinated with anyone if they are famous--even the vile and horrific.

NOTE--Like many of John Waters' later films, this one features a cameo by Patty Hearst.

SERIAL MOM is one of my all-time favourite black comedies, a genre that's notoriously difficult to get right (I mean, seriously, how many good ones can you think of?). I'm no fan of John Waters - in fact, this is the only film of his I've ever seen - but in this he has created pretty much the perfect antidote to the psycho-thriller genre.

Kathleen Turner bags the role of a lifetime as Beverly R. Sutphin, a seemingly ordinary housewife with a sinister side: she bumps off anybody who crosses her. Add in a quirky family (young 'uns Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard are both particularly funny) and you have the scene set for plenty of unusual and unexpected laughs. The murder scene set to ANNIE is by far my favourite moment and one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

What I like most about SERIAL MOM is the plot. In lesser hands, Turner would have successfully covered up her murders for the film's duration. Not so here - she's discovered, and becomes an unlikely celebrity, basking in her new-found fame. This gives Waters plenty of opportunity for satirising American law and order, fame, celebrity as well as suburban life and the nuclear family. DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES may satirise those kinds of things these days, but SERIAL MOM got there first!