Very well executed

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I'm taking another trip down memory lane, to review the 1989 movie Parents. I was only 14 when I watched this, and I will have no desire to see this again. Odd, but quite entertaining. What will you think of it? I will give you a few warnings, before I get to the review, so that you will be quite aware of what you are getting yourself into. This in mind, I wouldn't want you wasting your time with this, if its not what you are expecting. If you are expecting, for example, a gore-hound movie, with countless scenes of people gnawing away on other people like zombies, just because you found out this is a film about canabalism, let me save you some time: this is NOT that type of film. Although the violence can be strong from time to time, this film is actually quite tame, and the gore is done surprisingly tastefully. So the focus is not on the violence in Parents, am I clear? Where is the focus? Well, let's start by saying that this takes place in the 50's. A time of innocence. Who would suspect people eating people in the 1950's? This is what makes the film unique. The only person who suspects anything, is their own son, about eight years old. He is allowed to eat in the same room as his parents, however, he eats a separate table, and his food is prepped up differently. He befriends a little girl around his age, but he's afraid to say anything to her. Or anyone, for all that matter. He doesn't want to think of his parents as his arch enemies, but it's becoming clear to him that something is wrong. That being said, at the core of it all, this film possesses extreme emotional depth, almost even moving, because we begin to feel the fear that he's feeling. There's even a bizarre scene where he begins to fear food, and thinks he's being attacked by a string of sausage in the pantry, where he was trying to spy on his parents, figuring out what's going on with what they're cooking on the stove. The movie is a dark comedy, but it leans way much more on the serious side of dark comedy, rather then the slapstick or nonsense black comedy, making this a very respectable film. Director Bob Babalan seems to handle almost every scene with care, there is only one scene in the entire film that I had a problem with. The boy is looking up the tree at the little girl sitting on a branch, and we get almost a close up shot up the girls skirt, revealing her panties. Although this was done, I am sure, meant as a very innocent and harmless manner, I just couldn't understand how the movie would have been just fine, without this one scene. Sure, there's nothing sexual about it, but some viewers may, with pedophilia running rampant, and that's the part I cannot cope with...the thought that this was a child being exploited during the filming of all this. The only justification I have, is that the film does an excellent job of capturing the "through the eyes of a child" feeling. And never under estimate how disturbing this movie will be, right down to the shocking climax of it all. Altogether, I think Parents has problems, but just like life, all parents have problems. Let's just be glad that hopefully your parents don't have the same problems these folks do. 6 out of 10 stars!

Horror movies often exploit what is familiar, mundane and safe to us in order to shake up our sense of security, playing on this ingrained sense of security to generate fear. Halloween did it using a home, Ringu did it using a TV set, Parents gets literal with the familiar and uses ...well parents. Randy Quaid's performance is something to behold, his quirky chipper exterior belies something very dark and unpleasant indeed. There are several dream-like sequences in this movie which are deliciously ghastly. Powerful themes are at work here which will touch and unsettle anybody at a base level- revulsion at parents as sexual entities, the powerlessness and frustration of childhood it's all quite Freudian but in a most entertaining way. If the object of any horror movie (this is certainly a horror movie) is to scare then Parents is probably going to fall short of instigating terror in a hardened horror fan like myself. I did find it unbelievably creepy and pervasive however, this movie does cleverly tap into the childhood fears I'd forgotten about and for that it succeeds where so many more contemporary films will fail spectacularly (Mama springs to mind) The period setting and music in this movie are wonderful, the score (by Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks fame) is perfectly tuned to the themes and narrative. Sound is so very important in horror and when it's right it can make the difference between a scary movie and a boring one. Overall Parents is a very enjoyable film, it's funny, clever and gruesome what more could you possibly want?

I'm just getting ready to watch this but since there are so many other reviews I figured it would be OK if I didn't review it. However the first review that I read said it would be terrifying to watch a movie like this if you were at the age of the young boy in the movie. Let me just say that I DID watch this movie at that age and it scared the crap out of me. It was just so dark and weird. I have not seen it since but it has always stuck with me. I can't wait to watch it and see if it is still as scary as I remember.I remember a scene with tongues frying in a skillet that I can never forget.

When my parents rented this movie, I was expecting a very funny movie as Randy Quaid is very funny in comedy movies. However, this movie is not all that funny and it is somewhat boring too. You can see the surprise coming a mile away and it runs long for a movie that is supposedly only eighty one minutes long. So I can honestly say it is not a movie that is on my favorites list. It may work for some people, but it just did not work with me at all proving to be rather slow in the build-up with virtually nothing that amused me within the entire movie. Randy Quaid is wasted and the rest of the cast is a list of very bland actors and actresses. The premise of the movie had potential, as did the casting of Quaid, but all of it just sputters and the inclusion of the horror element just seems very unnecessary. Granted, the one dream sequence the kid had when he jumped on the bed and it suddenly became a whirlpool of blood was very nicely done and would have worked very well in a movie that was supposed to be pure horror, instead of one that lists comedy as its first genre.