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directed by: Bob Balaban starring: Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky, Juno Mills Cockell  List Price: $14.98 Price: $9.00 You Save: $5.98 (40%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786301249034 Format: Color, NTSC ISBN: 6301249038 Label: Vestron Video Manufacturer: Vestron Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Vestron Video Release Date: January 01, 1998 Running Time: 81 minutes Studio: Vestron Video Theatrical Release Date: January 27, 1989 Sales Rank: 16324 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Discount Shopping: In Parents, director Bob Balaban deconstructs our Father Knows Best perception of '50s suburbia, skewing it via moody cinematography and Angelo Badalamenti's sinister score. Ten-year-old Michael Lamele (Bryan Madorsky) thinks his parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) are cannibals. His constant fear of his folks and their supposedly evil doings begin to warp his view of the world, and he starts seeing a social worker to confront his problems. Are they merely childhood fears intensified by an overactive imagination, or do Michael's parents really crave human flesh? Much in the way that David Lynch approached the sinister underside of small-town America in Wild at Heart, so too does Balaban challenge our notion of the 'burbs as an escape from the harsh reality of the city. If anything, Michael's parents show their true colors once they become wrapped up in the materialistic, socially predatory world of suburban life. Vastly underappreciated, Balaban's Parents is one of those rare modern horror films that uses psychology to freak you out rather than tossing buckets of blood at you (although there are a few in the film, given its theme). This is one horror film that stands up, and deserves repeated viewings. --Bryan Reesman Average Rating:
 Rating:  - I'm not very hungry tonight ...The opening scenes of this "dark comedy" feature great 1950s cars, decor, costumes, and musical score! Perky housewife "Mom" is a kitchen whiz who serves up tasty looking left-overs every night. White shirt-and-tie "Dad" is ravenous after putting in long days at Toxico. (Clever company name!) Little Michael just wants to make friends at his new school - and eat something for dinner that's not "mystery meat." What a wholesome, 50s era set-up for a comedy about cannibals! I was having a fun time and ... Read More Rating:  - Am I crazy or were his parents actually NOT cannibals?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 ... Read More Rating: - Unusual, quirky, and possibly uniqueSomething dark and sinister lurks below the surface of the otherwise polished surface of 1950s suburbia in this unusual and quirky movie. The bland, boring 50s is revealed to be anything but that as Balaban creates an increasingly menacing atmosphere, building up the tension to a fever pitch before the deep, dark secret is finally revealed. When it is, the strangeness and incongruity of it all just adds to the drama and tension, and one wonders how the movie will end. Well, it does end a little predictably, ... Read More Rating:  - Silliness that could have been, but was not, inspired.Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989) TV director Balaban makes his feature debut with this little comedy about which I can't quite figure out what to say. I know I was unimpressed with it; I simply can't figure out why. The story concerns Michael (Bryan Madorsky, in his only screen role), a schoolboy who comes to believe that his parents Nick (Brokeback Mountain's Randy Quaid) and Lily (The Exorcism of Emily Rose's Mary Beth Hurt) are cannibals. This, obviously, messes with his head, which puts ... Read More Rating:  - dark........twisted..........sick..........disturbing.........creepy......you'll never want to eat meat again. set in the 1950's suburbia, think of "the 'burbs" on acid and you'll get the idea of what you are in for. Browse for similar items by category:
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