Mom and Dad

Plot

In a totally normal town in America, on a totally normal day – parents start to kill their children for no reason. Siblings Carly and Josh must try to keep safe from their parents Brent and Kendall.

Direction

This was actually a fairly solidly filmed movie, with decent techniques used. There was some good use of foreshadowing in some of the camera angles used, and there was some really incredible action sequences and stunt work (especially when one character is thrown down a staircase).

Cast/Characters

Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair who play the parents seemed to be having a blast in their respective roles.

Anne Winters and Zackary Arthur who play Carly and Josh get the most screen-time, and they both do a really good job of playing the terrified teens.

Lance Henriksen has a fun almost cameo in the third act, and he too looks like he had fun in the role.

Screenplay/Setting

Even at just 86 minutes from start to finish – this was quite a drag.

There were some mixed dialogue within – with some being fun, and worked well – but some of it felt un-organic and just bizarre.

I didn’t feel like the ‘flashbacks’ really added anything other to extend the runtime, and it added warmth to the parents as they became hell bent on killing them. The scene with Josh playing with the gun flashback was also completely inappropriate in his ‘costume’

Score/Soundtrack

I quite liked the opening credits, and they gave an almost grindhouse/exploitation feeling to it – which the film does deliver later on. There is also an ironic score, where what the score is playing doesn’t match what is airing.

There is a bit of an ‘old timey’ soundtrack at times too.

Overall

Despite its short runtime, it was a bit of a struggle to get through, and there is no explanation, or ** spoiler ** resolution to the crisis. While the direction, and cast were sound – the screenplay disappoints – and the bizarre flashbacks added nothing. I could go either way on this one.

2.5/5