Parents (1989)

Episode 443, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, Craig, we, uh, ended horror comedy month and it feels like we took a sharp turn into what a movie that builds itself as a horror comedy. But, uh, I didn’t find anything funny about it. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: I guess it, you know, I guess it’s appropriate.

So we’re doing Parents. It’s a 1989 movie directed by Bob Balaban. Bob Balaban is a guy that you will probably recognize. He was in a lot of the Christopher Guest comedies. He’s been all over television, all over movies. He’s just pops in and out of a lot of stuff. I’ve always enjoyed him and as, as an actor, I didn’t really realize that he had.

A bit of a career as a director, but he’s done like I didn’t either. 29 I, most of it’s television, but this was his directorial debut. And what an interesting idea to go with what is billed as a horror comedy, 1989, written by Christopher Hawthorne starring Randy Quaid. Mary Beth, her who used to be married to William Hurt for a while.

Sandy Dennis, a couple other people my first time seeing it, but I tell you, I had seen this movie on the shelves. Never really picked it up, but it was very curious about it. So I’m really glad that we finally got around to doing it. ’cause it’s kind of been on my list for a while. Had you seen this before?

Yeah, I know I have. 

Craig: It’s so strange. I I, I know I’ve seen it before. Really? Like, yeah, like you. It, it, it was the, the box art that I found intriguing. You know, like this fifties style, leave it to beaver style mother, like carving a big tray of meat and her husband at the refrigerator behind her, kind of looking over his shoulder.

Towards her and there’s a skull in the freezer. Mm. I don’t know. It was just, yeah. It, it looked, it was weird and creepy and I, I always liked that box art. I know I’ve seen it, but the thing is, I didn’t remember anything about it, but it was Bill as a horror comedy. And so that’s what I was expecting going in and I kept thinking the same thing that you just said.

I’m like, I don’t get, which parts are supposed to be funny. Like if this is dark comedy, it is as dark as it gets, and not really funny. I. 

Todd: No, 

Craig: but I don’t think that that’s the movie’s fault. 

Todd: No, 

Craig: it’s 

Todd: okay. I think 

Craig: that that is it’s, I think that it’s false expectations, because what I just read like in the last half hour was that Bob Balaban intended this as a psychological drama.

Oh, and then. The studio marketed it as a horror movie, and so it did really poorly because people went to the theaters expecting to see a, a dark horror comedy and this is what they got. So I, I think it just, it was, it was marketed poorly and yeah, it’s not, it’s, it’s just not what you expect. That’s not to say that it’s a bad movie.

No. It’s just not at all what you expect. 

Todd: Oh no. I will even go on record. I will say this is a fantastic movie. It’s weird. As a horror film, this is a gem. It is a bizarre, very psychological movie that did what a horror movie is supposed to do. I was uncomfortable through the whole thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I found the movie deeply unsettling from the get go.

It never let up. I almost felt like I had to take a shower when it was done, but not in the way of other films that we’ve seen where they’re just kind of really gross out and they’re just mm-hmm. You know, really exploitative and, and so, you know, you feel like they’re just, they’re just sleazy. This is not a sleazy movie.

This is a really, really well thought out, well-made movie with a lot of layers to it. And the only criticism I have is that they marketed it, it wrong. I I, I came in here with expecting comedy. I was looking for the comedy. I was anticipating it. It never came. And at the end of it I was like, well. God, great movie.

Really unsettling. Really, really dark. Not a funny thing in it. Right. So somebody really missed the mark on that. Yeah. 

Craig: Well, those expectations I think are further set by the fact that it stars Randy Quaid, who you know at this time was. National Lampoon’s vacation guy, you know? Yeah. Uncle Eddie. And, and he’s hilarious in those movies.

I, I, I think he’s great in those movies, and I think he’s great in this, but he’s, he, he’s totally against type. He is not funny. He is terrifying. No, 

Todd: he’s a horrifying person from the, from the minute he shows up on the screen, he’s just, he’s 

Craig: menacing, like 

Todd: predatory. Ugh. 

Craig: Yeah. You, you forget, I, I, I think he’s so.

Not dangerous in those fun family comedies that you forget that he is a big, giant man. And, and that’s really emphasized here. Especially because he’s playing against his son. Who is the main character? Michael is his name. I just, throughout this, I’m just gonna call them mom, dad, and son. I, I, yeah. Didn’t even bother learning their names ’cause it doesn’t really matter.

No. Like, and, and you, and you get that from the beginning too. Like this is all allegory. It reminded me, frankly, a lot of eraser head. 

Todd: Oh, it’s very surreal in so many ways. Yeah. Yeah. I 

Craig: mean, Balaban himself described it as kafkaesque, which I think is a word that we used to describe eraser head. Right. It doesn’t necessarily start out that way.

It, it kind of establishes, I mean, it’s, it’s not entirely traditional. It starts with a weird kind of black and white pan up this young boys. Face and you only kind of see half of his face at a time. And then