The obsession with 1950s culture permeated many a film in the 1980s like an aggressive strain of polio. "Parents" is yet another example of a nostalgic throwback released in the twilight of a decade marked by horror excess.
Too ambiguous to be memorable and too weird to be palatable, "Parents" is a truly oddball horror comedy from actor/director Bob Balaban. Balaban is probably best known for his role as Russell Dalrymple on "Seinfeld," which only adds further head-scratching confusion to the whole affair, yet I digress.
"Parents" can be best described as a long drawn-out joke without a punchline. Nick and Lily Laemle are a 1950s suburbanite couple with a predilection toward the macabre. Their 10-year-old son Michael has lucid dreams involving drowning in a sea of blood and a slew of other stock-footage nightmare stuff. His parents' odd behavior eventually catches his attention, and the rest of the film is dedicated towards slowly unveiling the proverbial elephant in the room.
Nick Laemle works as a county coroner, and in a far-from-surprising climax, we learn that the Laemles are (gasp) cannibals. The cannibal angle is alluded to early and often, inevitably ruining any momentum. Hinged upon a healthy dose of crackpot humor, "Parents" aims to delight with a quirky dark edge but never lives up to its full potential.
Randy Quaid does his best Jack Torrance impression, but the real star of the show is Bryan Madorsky in the role of Michael; his deadpan delivery adds a much needed comedic dimension to an otherwise one-dimensional plot. He befriends a new girl at school with a similar sense of macabre humor, and the two quickly spark a forbidden friendship. Michael's parents don't trust outsiders, given their frowned-upon dietary habits, but soon a school guidance counselor is forced to pay the Laemles a visit and their family secret is thusly exposed.
Balaban was onto something when he imagined a 1950s black comedy based on a suburbanite cannibal family, but the execution was amiss. Neither particularly witty nor horrific, "Parents" is simply a predictably boring product of its time, although cashing in on 1950s nostalgia in 1989 is the equivalent of releasing a disco record in 1979 — a day late and a dollar short.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkbpS4-sXX8&w=420&h=315]