Mommy is a 1995 American low budget thriller starring Patty McCormack as a mother who is psychotically obsessed with her 12-year-old daughter Jessica Ann (Rachel Lemieux).
One afternoon, her mother, known as Mrs. Sterling, visits the McKinley Elementary School Jessica Ann attends to meet with her teacher, Mrs. Withers.
After Mrs. Sterling tells Jessica Ann that she found her teacher dead, the police arrive led by detective Lt. March who immediately suspects that the death may not be accidental.
The next day at school, Jessica Ann is questioned by Lt. March in the principal's office who reveals the medical examiner determined Mrs. Withers died of a broken neck, but that the injury was sustained after she fell off the ladder.
Jessica Ann flashes back to dinner the previous evening where she noticed her mother opening a jar with an extremely tough grip and starts to think she may, in some way, be responsible for her teacher’s death.
Realizing that the janitor may reveal the truth to the police, Mrs. Sterling tells Jessica Ann she is going to the store to get some coffee and a rental tape, but in reality, visits the school when it is dark.
Confronting Miss Jones, who suggests she will blackmail her, she eventually electrocutes her by throwing a pail of water over the janitor near the school’s fuse board in the basement.
After a brief meeting with Lt. March and her attorney, Mr. Eckhardt, Mrs. Sterling realizes that she faces the very real possibility of being convicted for Mark’s death and decides to skip town with Jessica Ann.
Arriving at a motel several hours away from their home, Jessica Ann goes to sleep but has a nightmare of Mark rising from the dead and warning her about her mother’s mental state.
Lt. March grabs Mrs. Sterling and asks why she was unable to kill the only witness to her crimes to which she responds that Jessica Ann resembled herself as her face shined in the moonlight.
Then 11-year-old Rachel Lemieux had no prior professional acting experience; she was discovered at an open audition in an Iowa mall and beat out more than 200 girls for the role.
Despite the relatively low budget, the cast had a large number of well-known actors including Patty McCormack as the lead, Mickey Spillane as her attorney, Jason Miller as the investigating lieutenant and Majel Barrett as Jessica's school teacher at the start of the picture.
Former 'scream queen' Brinke Stevens was cast as the sister of Patty McCormack's character; she was an acquaintance of writer/director Max Allan Collins, whom he had met while the two were making personal appearances at comic book conventions.