Sarah Paulson is a narcissistic mother with Munchausen syndrome by proxy in ‘Run’.

3 Scary Movies That Show What It’s Like To Have A Mom Who Is A Narcissist

"No wire hangers, ever!"

Updated 8 hours ago, April 24, 2025

A narcissist mother believes that her need for admiration is more important than meeting her children’s needs. She is happy as long as she maintains the facade of being a good mother outwardly, and her family complies with her demands privately. Having a narcissist for a mother is traumatizing for helpless children who grow up learning to walk on eggshells and cater to their mother’s ego. Even worse, the cycle continues when they turn into adults who are unable to differentiate between healthy love and placating an abuser.

The moms in these movies go far beyond the normal range of selfishness and play motherhood for scares. These films may be cathartic for people who grew up with a narcissist mother or informational for those who were spared this horror. Here are three movies about frightening narcissistic moms:

Mommie Dearest (1981)

*Mommie Dearest*‘s “No wire hangers” scene will be familiar to those who grew up with a narcissistic parent and were forced to endure incoherent outbursts about perceived slights against the narcissist.

Mommie Dearest is a biographical psychological drama and cult classic about Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway). It was adapted from her daughter Christina’s autobiography. Joan goes to uncomfortable extremes to publicize herself as a perfect mother who rescues orphans. Behind closed doors however, she forces her adopted children into a living nightmare.

A few particularly traumatizing scenes from Mommie Dearest include:

The notorious “No wire hangers” scene, where Christina is punished for wire hangers being in her closet at an age where she is far too young to have anything to do with which hangers her clothes are on.
Joan’s violent overreaction to Christina playing at her vanity.
Joan forcing Christina into a swimming contest in their pool.

Black Swan (2010)

Barbara Hershey played a much better mother as the loving Carla Moran in *The Entity* (1982).

Black Swan is a psychological horror movie about Nina (Natalie Portman), a ballerina who lives with her mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), in New York City. As a former ballerina whose career never took off, Erica lives vicariously through her daughter. Like many narcissists, she seeks to maintain her child’s dependency through infantilizing Nina, denying her privacy and assuming control of her professional and social life.

Nina has just landed her first professional starring role and the immense pressure she puts on herself leads to hallucinations and spiraling out of touch with reality. Her relationship with her narcissistic mother provides the context for why Nina is so desperate for validation and willing to go to such extreme lengths to get it. The tragic ending of Black Swan is a direct result of Erica’s abuse. For Nina, it doesn’t matter how much it hurts, what matters is that others approve of her.

Run (2020)

Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen as mother and daughter in *Run*.

Run is a psychological horror thriller about Chloe (Kiera Allen), a teen who has a cluster of debilitating illnesses which isolate her from the outside world and cause her to be dependent on her mother, Diane (Sarah Paulson). Because Chloe uses a wheelchair, Diane is able to control everything in her life from her medication to her homeschooling — even whether her daughter can leave the house at all.

(Spoiler alert) The film’s major twist reveals that Chloe isn’t actually disabled. Instead, Diane has Munchausen syndrome by proxy and gives Chloe medication that intentionally causes paralysis in her legs. What is extra scary about Run is that it clearly took inspiration from a real life true crime case, that of Gypsy Rose and her mother Dee Dee Blanchard.