I've loved 'Parents' since I was a kid. I remember setting an alarm to wake up at 3am so I could watch the movie on HBO without drawing my parents' attention. Not that I was 100% certain they would shut it down. I just didn't want to take any chances. A wise decision.
Because 'Parents' is a movie that speaks directly to kids and the terrifying monsters that lurk in their fertile imaginations. I still get chills from some of the psycho-crazy-nightmare-visions whipped up by my kid brain. For example, I once had a dream (at age 6 or 7) where I was being chased around a cabin by my father who was wearing a crusty old Santa costume and wielding a giant kitchen knife. At the end of the dream, I make it to the kitchen where my mom is standing at the stove, heating a saucepan. I scream to her: "Mom! Dad has gone crazy! He's dressed as Santa and trying to kill me!" She turns, slowly revealing a silky, sinister smirk, and says: "I know, sweetheart. What do you think we're having for dinner?" And then I jolted awake. WTF!!! This was before 'Parents' so I've missed at least one opportunity to turn my mental mayhem into material for a cult classic. Alas I keep trying to tap into that font of hellish visions that flowed so freely when I was a kid. But I digress ...
'Parents' is the story of a similarly young, bizarre, and imaginative boy named Michael. He suspects something rotten beneath the surface of his picture-perfect suburban life in 1950s Eisenhower America (the perfect socio-political & aesthetic context for such a tale). Specifically, Michael questions his family's diet: an endless parade of mystery-meat slabs dancing across their dinner plates each evening. His mom calls them "left-overs," but left-overs from what? When Michael's worst suspicions are soon confirmed, he's faced with a decision far scarier than his most chilling nightmares (and this boy has some doozies!). Be part of the family and eat your friends, or be eaten by the people who are supposed to love you most.
Because 'Parents' is a movie that speaks directly to kids and the terrifying monsters that lurk in their fertile imaginations. I still get chills from some of the psycho-crazy-nightmare-visions whipped up by my kid brain. For example, I once had a dream (at age 6 or 7) where I was being chased around a cabin by my father who was wearing a crusty old Santa costume and wielding a giant kitchen knife. At the end of the dream, I make it to the kitchen where my mom is standing at the stove, heating a saucepan. I scream to her: "Mom! Dad has gone crazy! He's dressed as Santa and trying to kill me!" She turns, slowly revealing a silky, sinister smirk, and says: "I know, sweetheart. What do you think we're having for dinner?" And then I jolted awake. WTF!!! This was before 'Parents' so I've missed at least one opportunity to turn my mental mayhem into material for a cult classic. Alas I keep trying to tap into that font of hellish visions that flowed so freely when I was a kid. But I digress ...
'Parents' is the story of a similarly young, bizarre, and imaginative boy named Michael. He suspects something rotten beneath the surface of his picture-perfect suburban life in 1950s Eisenhower America (the perfect socio-political & aesthetic context for such a tale). Specifically, Michael questions his family's diet: an endless parade of mystery-meat slabs dancing across their dinner plates each evening. His mom calls them "left-overs," but left-overs from what? When Michael's worst suspicions are soon confirmed, he's faced with a decision far scarier than his most chilling nightmares (and this boy has some doozies!). Be part of the family and eat your friends, or be eaten by the people who are supposed to love you most.