On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Is That a Meat Cleaver in Your Pocket — or Are My Parents Just Happy to See Me?
“What were they before they were leftovers?” That’s the dramatic meat hook on which Bob Balaban hangs his giddily middling 1989 horror comedy “Parents,” a surrealist satire set in 1950s suburbia, best likened to a chunky jello mold filled with human toes. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t serve cannibalism cinema this underbaked to mixed company; let alone the hubby’s new boss and his one-scene-having wife. But for the IndieWire After Dark family during ’80s Week,...
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Is That a Meat Cleaver in Your Pocket — or Are My Parents Just Happy to See Me?
“What were they before they were leftovers?” That’s the dramatic meat hook on which Bob Balaban hangs his giddily middling 1989 horror comedy “Parents,” a surrealist satire set in 1950s suburbia, best likened to a chunky jello mold filled with human toes. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t serve cannibalism cinema this underbaked to mixed company; let alone the hubby’s new boss and his one-scene-having wife. But for the IndieWire After Dark family during ’80s Week,...
- 8/19/2023
- by Alison Foreman and Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Cannibalism has emerged as the genre du jour in horror. With the success of last year’s Fresh and Bones and All as well as the second season of Yellowjackets finally digging into the human flesh, everyone seems to be exploring this taboo topic. From nightmare survival scenarios to narcissistic serial killers, these films follow humans or humanoid monsters who consume human flesh in one way or another. Some butcher and cook the meat, while others eat it from the bone, but all cannibal films offer a window into a world of depravity and a fascinating blend of horror and revulsion. We not only fear being eaten ourselves, but we often find ourselves imagining what the meat would taste like should we dare (or be forced) to take a bite.
Films about cannibals may seem like a rare delicacy, but a closer look reveals that the pickens are not so slim.
Films about cannibals may seem like a rare delicacy, but a closer look reveals that the pickens are not so slim.
- 5/5/2023
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
No matter when or where you were born, being a kid is hard - every day is a week, good or bad, and every problem is insurmountable no matter the climb. A normal child’s experience is heightened at the very least, and if a real issue does emerge it’s usually the parents who can steer the youth to calmer waters. But what if the grown-ups are the problem? This is the pickle that our wee protagonist finds himself with in Parents (1989), in which the prospect that Mom and Dad may be cannibals becomes chillingly real.
Produced and distributed by Vestron Pictures in late January, Parents brought in a miserable $900,000 against a $3 million budget. Reviews were less punishing, but at best it received lukewarm notices from critics. I believe it to be a little more cooked, and I promise that will probably be the last food pun I lay on the table.
Produced and distributed by Vestron Pictures in late January, Parents brought in a miserable $900,000 against a $3 million budget. Reviews were less punishing, but at best it received lukewarm notices from critics. I believe it to be a little more cooked, and I promise that will probably be the last food pun I lay on the table.
- 9/21/2019
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Stars: Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky | Written by Christopher Hawthorne | Directed by Bob Balaban
“Real grown-ups don’t get upset,” reckons Michael Laemle (Bryan Madorsky), a young boy trapped in an idyllic 1950s condo with his creepily conventional parents. It’s a comment that betrays his increasingly twisted thinking. He suspects there’s something funny about his folks, and not in a ha-ha way. Mother (Mary Beth Hurt) is constantly serving up “leftover” meat, and Father (Randy Quaid) keeps giving weird lectures about the darkness of the human mind.
Father is a supervisor in a scientific research facility and his job gives him access to cadavers. Is it possible that Mom and Pop might be cannibals? Murderers, even? They have the perfect alibi: the career-man patriarch and his pie-baking wife, living in their domestic utopia, with its minimalist tan furniture and an Oldsmobile in the driveway.
“Real grown-ups don’t get upset,” reckons Michael Laemle (Bryan Madorsky), a young boy trapped in an idyllic 1950s condo with his creepily conventional parents. It’s a comment that betrays his increasingly twisted thinking. He suspects there’s something funny about his folks, and not in a ha-ha way. Mother (Mary Beth Hurt) is constantly serving up “leftover” meat, and Father (Randy Quaid) keeps giving weird lectures about the darkness of the human mind.
Father is a supervisor in a scientific research facility and his job gives him access to cadavers. Is it possible that Mom and Pop might be cannibals? Murderers, even? They have the perfect alibi: the career-man patriarch and his pie-baking wife, living in their domestic utopia, with its minimalist tan furniture and an Oldsmobile in the driveway.
- 2/25/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
From a crazy early Nic Cage role to a lesser-known film starring Robert De Niro, here's our pick of 25 underappreciated films from 1989...
Ah, 1989. The year the Berlin Wall came down and Yugoslavia won the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also a big year for film, with Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade topping the box office and Batman dominating the summer with its inescapable marketing blitz.
Outside the top 10 highest-grossing list, which included Back To The Future II, Dead Poets Society and Honey I Shrunk The Kids, 1989 also included a plethora of less commonly-appreciated films. Some were big in their native countries but only received a limited release in the Us and UK. Others were poorly received but have since been reassessed as cult items.
From comedies to thrillers, here's our pick of 25 underappreciated films from the end of the 80s...
25. An Innocent Man
Disney, through its Touchstone banner, had high hopes for this thriller,...
Ah, 1989. The year the Berlin Wall came down and Yugoslavia won the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also a big year for film, with Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade topping the box office and Batman dominating the summer with its inescapable marketing blitz.
Outside the top 10 highest-grossing list, which included Back To The Future II, Dead Poets Society and Honey I Shrunk The Kids, 1989 also included a plethora of less commonly-appreciated films. Some were big in their native countries but only received a limited release in the Us and UK. Others were poorly received but have since been reassessed as cult items.
From comedies to thrillers, here's our pick of 25 underappreciated films from the end of the 80s...
25. An Innocent Man
Disney, through its Touchstone banner, had high hopes for this thriller,...
- 4/28/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
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