Thrusting audience into America’s ‘50s suburbia of contentment, where behind the closed doors, inconceivable horrors lurk within a perfect nuclear family, actor-turned-director Bob Balaban’s first directorial effort PARENTS is a black comedy/horror melange that walks a tight rope in balancing the tonal shifts, and it is satisfactorily effective.

Displaced by his family’s recent move, 10-year-old Michael Laemie (Madorsky) is a gawky kid who inclines to keep to himself, haunted by morbid thoughts and gory nightmares, he begins to suspect his parents (Quaid and Hurt) might be cannibals. Are they or aren’t they? Balaban’s film taunts us with ambivalence, one moment, it appears everything is a figment of Michael’s wildest imagination, but when a slovenly, chain-smoking social worker (Dennis, looks out of sorts) is involved, murderous acts seems veracious.

Balaban’s satirical streak runs amok with a kid’s untrustworthy viewpoint, not least with the cozy but unsettling ending, intimating an affirmative answer to the big question mark hovering inside a viewer’s head. It also provides ample opportunity for him to effect sundry visual techniques - like split focus, 360 degree rotating long takes, black-and-white fuzzy shots, etc. - and horror tropes - a creepy cellar, a room full of cadavers, movable meat sausages, among others.

If the material is irrefutably dark, Oedipus complex is the prime mover behind Michael’s mortal repulsion toward his father, PARENTS also conspicuously basks in the sunny-side of normalcy, accompanied by easy listening tunes and a whiff of breeziness sent by Quaid, Hurt and others. Quaid is exceptionally good as a frustrated father, whose respectable, bland appearance flakes out bit by bit, and when he is pushed beside himself, he can be equally menacing with those chilling eyes behind spectacles; and Hurt adorns her domineering mannerism with exquisite daintiness, she is the mommy dearest to die for.

Largely ignored upon its release, PARENTS is worthy of a resurgence of acknowledgement for its transgressive portrayal of growing pains, or its flippant message to convert carnivores to vegetarians, either way, Balaban’s film is a hoot that sends up the none-too-bizarre bedfellows of respectability and perversion.

referential entries: Paul Bartel’s EATING RAOUL (1982, 6.9/10); Balaban’s BERNARD AND DORIS (2006, 6.5/10).

Title: Parents

Year: 1989

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery

Country: Canada, USA

Language: English

Director: Bob Balaban

Screenwriter: Christopher Hawthorne

Music: Jonathan Elias

Cinematography: Ernest Day, Robin Vidgeon

Editing: Bill Pankow

Cast:

Randy Quaid

Mary Beth Hurt

Bryan Madorsky

Sandy Dennis

London Juno

Kathryn Grody

Deborah Rush

Graham Jarvis

Rating: 6.8/10

不知道要表達什么，純粹就是屬于自己的cult片，但結果是令觀眾拍手稱快的，可最后爺爺奶奶也一樣是吃人肉的，這就不知道導演到底想表達什么了。不過很有可能他是媽媽和其他男人的私生子？但是最后爺爺卻說他長的像爸爸？這可能并不是我們需要在意的問題。可能導演唯一想告訴觀眾的是：人的一切行為和思想不是與生俱來的，而是會被環(huán)境所影響的，相信邁克的爸爸小時候也像邁克經歷了父母吃人肉的恐怖行為，但他爸最終還是被父母同化，但邁克卻沒有，他始終保持了內心應有的恐懼，而不是失去對這種應有恐懼的敬畏，他沒有被同化成食人魔。雖然從小我們就被鼓勵要克服恐懼，使自己變得更強大，但對一些不該觸碰的東西，我們一定要保持敬畏之心。什么東西不該碰？相信正常人心里應該都有數吧??

還有，小男孩的演技很好。

總得來說，純粹就是cult片，不用去理會結局的含義。但對于cult片，評分主要看創(chuàng)意，劇情和寓意不用管，我覺得值四顆星。