In Ari Aster’s new “Beau is Afraid,” the central theme is the fear and pain that can come from the mother-child bond. “It just lent itself to this exploration of maternal fears and what it might mean if your mother was to turn on you.” “I think it’s very terrifying to imagine somebody so familiar to you in your world becoming a subversion of that, and becoming something really dangerous and evil,” said director Lee Cronin. “ Evil Dead Rise,” now available to rent on streaming services, plays with the fear-inducing extreme of a mom being possessed by a demon. Other films let the dynamic between mother and child carry the drama. Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian” (2022) also turns breastfeeding into a spectacle, not from an inviting yet depraved sexual partner as in “Infinity Pool,” but from a monstrous maternal creature who forces her victims to feast. While the genre has often been dismissed as low-brow, Adam Lowenstein, a film and media studies professor at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in horror, said it is well-suited for grappling with these kinds of deep-seated, psychological issues. In one talked-about scene, Gabi (Mia Goth) exposes her bare chest to James (Alexander Skarsgård) in an invitation to breastfeed, revealing a complicated tension between his actual mother and his understanding of Gabi as his new one. The director, after all, has surely learned a thing or two from his filmmaker dad and giant of the genre, David Cronenberg. It’s no surprise it was replete with disturbing moments. Take, for example, Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” which became one of the buzziest films to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Since the genre’s inception, horror movies have tapped into the psychological trauma and terror that can only come from a mother, and a number of recent films are embracing that time-honored tradition. LOS ANGELES (AP) - If you’re stumped for how to spend this Mother’s Day, consider relishing a good scare.

Psycho by Onley James