Parents

Parents
by Bob Balaban

Parents
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $9.00
You Save: $5.98 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.17 (click here)
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases


(Click here)
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada

VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Bryan Madorsky, Juno Mills Cockell, Mary Beth Hurt, Randy Quaid, Sandy Dennis
Director: Bob Balaban
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 81 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Vestron Video
Studio: Vestron Video

VHS Movie Reviews of Parents

Movie Review: I'm not very hungry tonight ...
Summary: 1 Stars

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 even asking for "seconds" at the dinner table - until the little boy started having nightmares. Then I lost my appetite completely.

This is NOT a comedy and definitely not for the kiddies. The first fifteen minutes or so are fine, but watch out! When the film-makers start splashing blood around, "Parents" becomes a totally different kind of movie. That's too bad because it could have been a fine little comedy.

I have two questions for the screenwriter of this kitchen fiasco - what did the family eat in their old hometown, and why does their son aged 9 or 10 wait until now to refuse to eat "meat"? My mother made the worst liver in town and we kids somehow choked it down. "C'mon, Michael, how about taking just one bite of this delicious meat dish? Your mother slaved in the kitchen all afternoon..."

Ugh, please pass the Tums and hit the rewind button on the VCR. Think I'll pass on dessert tonight, too!

Summary of Parents

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

Comedy VHS Video

VHS Video Movies
Movies most talked about in child protagonists and narrators of horror movies
Experiments in Terror ImageExperiments in Terror
Release date: 2005-09-27; DVD
Best price: $16.07
Price in other shops: $24.95
Dark Stories, Vol. 3 ImageDark Stories, Vol. 3
Release date: 2002-12-03; DVD
Price in other shops: $7.98
Veneno Para las Hadas ImageVeneno Para las Hadas
Release date: 2005-01-25; DVD
Best price: $2.64
Price in other shops: $14.95
Tideland (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) ImageTideland (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
THINKFILM LLC; Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $10.06
Price in other shops: $27.98
Spirit of the Beehive - Criterion Collection ImageSpirit of the Beehive - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-19; DVD
Best price: $27.17
Price in other shops: $39.95
Something Wicked This Way Comes ImageSomething Wicked This Way Comes
Release date: 2004-08-03; DVD
Best price: $10.88
Price in other shops: $19.99
Reflecting Skin ImageReflecting Skin
Lions Gate/Live Home Video; Release date: 1993-02-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $32.96
Parents ImageParents
Vestron Video; Release date: 1998-01-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops: $14.98
Parents ImageParents
Release date: 1999-05-25; DVD
Best price: $59.99
Paperhouse ImagePaperhouse
Vestron; Release date: 1990-01-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: $89.99
Similar VHS Movies
Super High Me (Conservative Art) ImageSuper High Me (Conservative Art)
Universal; Release date: 2008-06-17; DVD
Best price: $18.21
Price in other shops: $24.98
Opera ImageOpera
Ryko Distribution; Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $7.18
Price in other shops: $14.95
Teeth ImageTeeth
WELLSPRING/GENIUS; Release date: 2008-05-06; DVD
Best price: $13.95
Price in other shops: $24.95
Groundhog Day (Special 15th Anniversary Edition) ImageGroundhog Day (Special 15th Anniversary Edition)
Sony; Release date: 2008-01-29; DVD
Best price: $7.81
Price in other shops: $14.94
From Beyond (Unrated Director's Cut) ImageFrom Beyond (Unrated Director's Cut)
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-09-11; DVD
Best price: $11.11
Price in other shops: $19.98
Repo Man (Collector's Edition) ImageRepo Man (Collector's Edition)
Universal; Release date: 2006-01-24; DVD
Best price: $5.08
Price in other shops: $19.98
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ImageSweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Paramount; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops: $29.99
Poltergeist II/Poltergeist III ImagePoltergeist II/ Poltergeist III
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-08-26; DVD
Best price: $6.87
Price in other shops: $14.98
Night of the Demons ImageNight of the Demons
Release date: 2004-08-24; DVD
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops: $9.98
The Unholy [Region 2] ImageThe Unholy [Region 2]
DVD
Best price: $54.56
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners