Parents

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Parents

58% Liked It
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Parents

Mary Beth Hurt, Randy Quaid, Sandy Dennis

In Parents, director Bob Balaban deconstructs our Father Knows Best perception of '50s suburbia, skewing it via moody cinematography and Angelo Badalamenti's sinister score. Ten-year-old Michael Lamel...( read more  read more... )e (Bryan Madorsky) thinks his parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) are cannibals. His constant fear of his folks and their supposedly evil doings begin to warp his view of the world, and he starts seeing a social worker to confront his problems. Are they merely childhood fears intensified by an overactive imagination, or do Michael's parents really crave human flesh? Much in the way that David Lynch approached the sinister underside of small-town America in Wild at Heart, so too does Balaban challenge our notion of the 'burbs as an escape from the harsh reality of the city. If anything, Michael's parents show their true colors once they become wrapped up in the materialistic, socially predatory world of suburban life. Vastly underappreciated, Balaban's Parents is one of those rare modern horror films that uses psychology to freak you out rather than tossing buckets of blood at you (although there are a few in the film, given its theme). This is one horror film that stands up, and deserves repeated viewings. --Bryan Reesman

Id: 10900128

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Recent Reviews

Parents Recent Reviews
  • YosemiteSamFan
    July 5, 2009
    YosemiteSamFan
    Creepy low-budget 80's comedy horror whose intended message sorta went over my head. It's awkward viewing and not too exciting.
  • Stinger839
    June 16, 2009
    Stinger839
    This is available for free viewing on Hulu.com.

    The acting is the clear winner of this flick, with set decoration coming in close second. And unlike most modern horror, this film has a plot that includes characters we the audience have a stake in. I viewed this with my best frie...( read more)nd who said this during the screening, "Why don't they make movies like this anymore? Movies where you actually care about the characters and want to know what happens?" And it's quite true - this movie is not the most complicated of stories, but we DO care about what happens to this kid and to know what his parents are really up to.

    This is a fun family horror-comedy, with a really cool final act.
  • bradwest
    October 19, 2008
    bradwest
    Flip side of the 50's. This, along with Blue Velvet and The Burbs will make you question leaving the big city.
  • DrBenway
    May 20, 2008
    DrBenway
    Where does the meat come from? While it's funny as hell, Parents also plays on a number of childhood fears, and Balaban's direction, combined with Angelo Badalamenti's moody score, make this a fun, creepy, twisted tale of life in the suburbs circa 1954.
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  • lavenderfawn
    May 3, 2008
    lavenderfawn
    This movie is sooo messed up...butAWESOME! You just have to see it to believe it!
  • donibscott
    September 21, 2009
    donibscott
    mix childhood imaginations, with screwed up parents and you get a psychosis, mix it with cannibals and you may get a young psychotic! Great show!
  • erikggrep
    July 13, 2009
    erikggrep
    There's now a new name for terror: Parents. In the Laemle family, Dad's got a job at the Toxico plant, Mom's homemaking, and ten-year-old Michael thinks his folks are cannibals. Michael frequently fears of his parents and their supposedly evil acts start to warp his view o...( read more)f the world, so he often visits a social worker to talk about his problems. Either his parents really do crave for human meat, or they're only childhood nightmares from his imagination.

    Directed by Bob Balaban, Parents features very good acting performances from the following cast:
    1.) Randy Quaid (Nick Laemle)
    2.) Mary Beth Hurt (Lily Laemle)
    3.) Sandy Dennis (Millie Dew)
    4.) Bryan Madorsky (Michael Laemle)
    5.) Juno Mills-Cockell (Shelia Zeliner)
    6.) Kathryn Grody (Miss Baxter)

    When I saw Parents, I find it as a horror movie with its sick humor that would end up on my dinner plate. Surely many TV and the movies portray the perfect all-American suburban family set in the innocently-looking late '50s/early '60s background, the film does show them but parodies in a terror twist. Sometimes I enjoy seeing a mystery where Michael asks what he's having for dinner and his folks tell him of leftovers (and more leftovers) while they eat quietly in the table. And then some good but grotesque bloody scenes ensue. Thank goodness my Parents aren't like that.
  • srackleff87
    July 10, 2009
    srackleff87
    looks like a very cheezy movie...
  • hotbiracialgirl13
    July 8, 2009
    hotbiracialgirl13
    Watched this movie when i was like mayb 12 (im 17 now) loved it, have to say then i thought it was creepy nd made me glad that ma mom was a vegan lol
  • poisonabsinthe
    May 22, 2009
    poisonabsinthe
    What is that starnge meat your eating? This almost makes me want to become a vegetarian
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