Customer Reviews

Parents [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Parents is a film I had known about for quite a while before I finally decided to check it out. I was quite surprised by what I saw. Bob Balaban's cold, minimalistic style was just the touch this film needed. What could have been slapstick horror comedy (a la Dead-Alive or Evil Dead 2, both of which are great; that style just wouldn't work as well for this film) instead becomes a superbly filmed satire of 1950s family culture.

I never thought I could actually be afraid of Randy Quaid, but his performance is truly blood-curdling. (Strangely enough, due to the facial expressions he makes throughout the movie, this is the first time I've ever noticed a resemblance between him and his brother Dennis.) He plays the character with a understatement I didn't realize he was capable of.

I understand why some critics came down on the climax and resolution of the film, feeling it much too conventional in light of what had preceded it, but I feel that there weren't too many more possibilities they could have utilized. The film works fine the way it is, and I recommend it to fans of horror films and sharp-witted satire alike.

"Parents" is a modern-day comedy about a 1950s family... the Laemlies (lem-lees). Young Micheal Laemlie lives a life of secrecy, pain and anxiety. Plauged by regular nightmares and, to some extent, "daymares", Mike is a suffering child. He is moody, emotionless, withdrawn, and a 'picky eater'... apparently emotionally disturbed. In response to a drawing he is asked to create at school, Mike begins to see the school pyschologist... but, well, she doesn't hang around for too long.

This is a howingly funny gallow's-humor flick with a cannibalistic twist that is sure to catch your attention and earn a special place in your video collection. The music is idiotically happy, even in the midst of some horribly gruesome scenes. The effect is... eerie, disturbing.

Remember, people... what's the scariest thing of all? PARENTS!

Parents is one of those rare film gems that, although is masterfully crafted, may never get the recognition it deserves. It's a 'film', not a 'movie'. It is a horror film, psychologically and with a bit of grossness thrown in. It really tells the tale of idle young minds which can stagnate and rot in the tepid pools of parental medicority - probably secretly funded by wealthy vegetarians. The boy has a lot going on inside his head - just like his father's boss tells him about his father. Worth owning - especially if you can get a DVD copy.

a brilliant farce that walks the fine line between reality and hallucination - in other words, a perfect analogy of childhood on film. Certainly, a lot of the dark overtones mimmick the "black & white" certitude with which 1950s USA stepped forth, and though cannibalism is a vehicle for that idea, the film makes a much more sinister point. Un- fortunately, like many of the best visual filmmakers' films, this one has to be seen to be understood. Talking about it just doesn't do it justice. The plot may be thin at points, but the visual style is enough to keep this one going to the end.

Red Carpet Double Feature: Fear/Parents

Don't spend an arm and a leg on this out of print version of PARENTS! Instead, there's a better and cheaper version of this uniquely dark humored and mildly disturbing gem!!!

Even though the DVD case erroneously states that the two films are presented in FULLSCREEN, the Red Carpet Double Feature release: "FEAR"/"PARENTS" (2006) actually sports gorgeous, anamorphic WIDESCREEN transfers of both films!!!! FEAR is an average film, but I've always loved the creepy, 1950s inspired PARENTS (I give it 5 Stars). The Red Carpet version starts (new!) at a measly $7.00 plus shipping for a total of ten bucks right here on AMAZON!

From Ted Voron (voronOsphere)

Randy Quaid is what makes this film in my opinion. MaryBeth Hurt is good, but it's the bizarreness of Quaid which drew me in. It is the 1950's and it is a tale about a picture perfect family that turns out to have some very unusual customs. I will not tell you what seperates this family from others but I will tell you to give this movie a chance. This is Bob Balaban's directorial debut and it is a not a bad one. Buyer Beware: This is not typical Hollywood Cinema!

I'm probably wrong about this (as demonstrated by all the other reader comments), but what I got from this film was a dark eerie tale about a disturbed child whose father's job happens to involve experimentation with corpses. I think the father was bringing the body parts home to experiment on, not eat. He was shown to be obsessed with his job, so this makes sense to me -- and would also explain why he doesn't want his son in the cellar, to find out his secret, that he's been illegally bringing corpses home to experiment upon.

Furthermore, when the school psychologist is killed, they don't show who did it. I think the psychotic child did it, and didn't even realize it.

Finally, at the end of the film, the father knows that the son has seen the corpses in the basement, and THAT'S why he says "So now you know our little secret." As for the meat, he never says, "This is dead people." He just says, "You'll learn to love it, just like your mother did," which is just a response to the boy refusing to eat his meat for a couple weeks in a row. When he sets out to KILL the child, it's only because the child tried to kill him first and it pushed him over the top!

That's my interpretation anyway. I don't think they were cannibals. If so, that's kind of a lame ending.

This movie has been labeled as a "black comedy"...wrongo. Aside from the skewered satirical slant Balaban weaves into the film, this movie is straight-up surrealistic horror from start to finish, with what could be considered one of the world's eeriest soundtracks to boot. Highly recommended for fans of the sinister and bizarre.

"Parents" is a really odd blend of your basic "something's rotten in suburbia" movie, a genuine horror flick, a lovingly created period piece, and...something else. Something even more disturbing than the movie's pretense.

The plot is fairly simple: poor Michael becomes convinced that his parents, who are paragons of suburbia, are cannibals. Are they? Really? The movie is told from Michael's point of view, and it sure looks like they are from here. The premise, and some of the touches, really have the feel of dark satire, and in fact I see "Parents" gets billed as a black comedy.

But look deeper in Michael's eyes, and it looks like something darker than comedy is going on here. It's not much of a stretch to interpret "cannibalism" as "child abuse" - look at how badly Michael is affected by his discoveries. The actual theme is broader, I think - essentially, the movie argues that the surface of suburbia can mask some really horrible things. Which isn't a particularly new notion, but it's worth pointing out sometimes.

I can't say I enjoyed "Parents," but it's extremely well-made and acted. I love the period look, and the shots of meat are appropriately disgusting. Maybe it's a comedy, but I didn't laugh once - instead, I shrunk in both the exaggerated horror of Michael's nightmares, the campy horror of his perception, and the genuine horror of his reality.

This is one of my favorite sick-n-twisted movies! Set in a Cold War "duck and cover" surrealistic world of Betty Crocker, this flick prompted me to be vegetarian for 4 years. Haunting awesome images of "meat" being cooked..... shows what a little seasoning can do for cheap meat.