This essay examines the monstrous mother through a gothic lens, critiquing society’s inability to deal with the role of the mother, who, if she transgresses society’s conception of the “good mother” is considered to be monstrous. From a film perspective, Now, Voyager, The Manchurian Candidate, and Ordinary People are used to depict three representatives of the monstrous mother: the all-controlling, the psychopathic, and the repressive, while at the same time illustrating the power of these mothers. In The Manchurian Candidate, Eleanor Shaw Iselin uses her son to attain power that patriarchal culture deprives her from. Mrs. Vale in Now, Voyager symbolises the mother who refuses to allow her daughter to live independently, without her control/influence. Beth Jarrett in Ordinary People uniquely represents the mother who is judged as monstrous because she is unable to express her emotions about her sons: one dead and one alive.