I was telling a coworker about a movie that I saw recently. She immediately guessed the plot twist and recommended that I see Mommy Dead and Dearest, which I did. Mommy Dead and Dearest is a HBO true crime documentary about a matricide caused by decades of abuse that the mother inflicted upon the daughter.
Mommy Dead and Dearest is riveting because there is not one single good guy. Everyone is messed up, creepy and culpable. Mommy Dead and Dearest will make you realize how lucky people are that there is no such thing as a Good Samaritan law (think Seinfeld series finale episode) because everyone would be guilty for not intervening. The family is not surprised that the murder victim was actually an abuser. Despite the abuse victim’s little girl affectation, she may already be following in her mother’s footsteps as an expert manipulator. Sometimes abuse victims become abusers. Most of the medical experts and the father were guilty of equating the mother with a person who is always benevolent and wants the best for her child then deferring to her. When the cameras turn off, will the father and stepmother still be there to offer support? I always knew that it is shockingly easy for someone to find a romantic partner who also wants to do bad things (Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo), but Mommy Dead and Dearest confirms it once again.
I sincerely hope that documentaries like Mommy Dead and Dearest will help medical professionals and law enforcement understand that just because you are a parent does not mean that you will act like one. Authorities need to buck prevailing gender norms about women and stop relying on the iconography of motherhood.
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Mommy Dead and Dearest is the real life, less glamorous, no happy ending Everything, Everything, which is the movie that I referenced in the opening paragraph! If you are interested in both of these films, you may also be interested in The Harvest.