吃人爸妈

Thrusting audience into America’s ‘50s suburbia of contentment, where behind the closed doors, inconceivable horrors lurk within a perfect nuclear family, actor-turned-director Bob Balaban’s first directorial effort PARENTS is a black comedy/horror melange that walks a tight rope in balancing the tonal shifts, and it is satisfactorily effective.

Displaced by his family’s recent move, 10-year-old Michael Laemie (Madorsky) is a gawky kid who inclines to keep to himself, haunted by morbid thoughts and gory nightmares, he begins to suspect his parents (Quaid and Hurt) might be cannibals. Are they or aren’t they? Balaban’s film taunts us with ambivalence, one moment, it appears everything is a figment of Michael’s wildest imagination, but when a slovenly, chain-smoking social worker (Dennis, looks out of sorts) is involved, murderous acts seems veracious.

Balaban’s satirical streak runs amok with a kid’s untrustworthy viewpoint, not least with the cozy but unsettling ending, intimating an affirmative answer to the big question mark hovering inside a viewer’s head. It also provides ample opportunity for him to effect sundry visual techniques - like split focus, 360 degree rotating long takes, black-and-white fuzzy shots, etc. - and horror tropes - a creepy cellar, a room full of cadavers, movable meat sausages, among others.

If the material is irrefutably dark, Oedipus complex is the prime mover behind Michael’s mortal repulsion toward his father, PARENTS also conspicuously basks in the sunny-side of normalcy, accompanied by easy listening tunes and a whiff of breeziness sent by Quaid, Hurt and others. Quaid is exceptionally good as a frustrated father, whose respectable, bland appearance flakes out bit by bit, and when he is pushed beside himself, he can be equally menacing with those chilling eyes behind spectacles; and Hurt adorns her domineering mannerism with exquisite daintiness, she is the mommy dearest to die for.

Largely ignored upon its release, PARENTS is worthy of a resurgence of acknowledgement for its transgressive portrayal of growing pains, or its flippant message to convert carnivores to vegetarians, either way, Balaban’s film is a hoot that sends up the none-too-bizarre bedfellows of respectability and perversion.

referential entries: Paul Bartel’s EATING RAOUL (1982, 6.9/10); Balaban’s BERNARD AND DORIS (2006, 6.5/10).

Title: Parents

Year: 1989

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery

Country: Canada, USA

Language: English

Director: Bob Balaban

Screenwriter: Christopher Hawthorne

Music: Jonathan Elias

Cinematography: Ernest Day, Robin Vidgeon

Editing: Bill Pankow

Cast:

Randy Quaid

Mary Beth Hurt

Bryan Madorsky

Sandy Dennis

London Juno

Kathryn Grody

Deborah Rush

Graham Jarvis

Rating: 6.8/10

这部电影看得我有点乱。

男孩是素食者，讨厌吃肉，觉得父母吃肉都是血淋淋的，血红的。

刚开始看到他把父母做爱时母亲的嘴巴联想到食肉时，我还以为这是男孩性启蒙时因为对性认知不足，而产生的神秘惧怕，而后续的一系列事件都是基于此而产生的幻觉呢！

结果看了一半才发现，父母真的是食人族，竟然是我想多了？整部片子就…还挺莫名其妙的，像是本来要揭示点儿什么，最后掀开帘子却发现也就那样的感觉。

不过除去剧本的糟糕体验，整部剧的镜头把握的很好，连带着布局色彩和光线也鲜活了起来。