We’re in a suburban town where a mother is putting on some music in the car for her child. Static starts playing…and she then drives her car to some railroad tracks and leaves her child to die there. Then we head over to the Ryans, a family consisting of the mom Kendall (Selma Blair), the dad Brent (Nicolas Cage), the daughter Carly (Anne Winters) and the son Joshua (Zackary Arthur). Things are, like in most normal families, stressful and a little strained here and there: the dad’s going through a mid-life crisis, brother and sister are picking fights with each other, and the mom is trying to occupy herself with taking fitness classes. The kids go to school as usual, and then the TV screens and radios starts transmitting the static we saw in the opening scene of the film. All hell breaks lose, and parents all over the place are going crazy and hellbent on killing their own offspring. Brent and Kendall are no exception to this mass hysteria, and the children must try to stay safe from the people who should’ve been the safest of all.
Mom and Dad is a black comedy horror film from 2017, written and directed by Brian Taylor (who also directed the recent Hellboy movie Hellboy: The Crooked Man from 2024). It had a limited release, and while getting a generally positive reception it underperformed badly, grossing only $286,313 against its $4 million budget. Still, Nicolas Cage said it was his favorite movie that he had filmed in 10 years, and John Waters named it as one of his top 10 favorites released that year.
Now, a movie about parents going insane and wanting to kill their children sounds like a pretty fun idea for a horror movie, right? While it could have been anything from a serious and grisly movie to something that takes itself too seriously, it fortunately takes the road of black comedy instead which fits perfectly here. It’s pretty fast-paced, and easily entertaining despite not exactly having the thickest of plot. Originally, I expected the movie to be a bit more gory, though… sure, there is a bit here and there but not that much as many of the kills are off-screen.
The major theme of the movie is parents feeling trapped in parenthood. There is a line in the movie, where Brent says: “I mean, I used to be Brent… and you used to be Kendall… and now we’re just… Mom and Dad “. And I think this rings true for many parents, who might end up losing themselves in a busy family life and not having enough time to nurture the relationship to their spouse, their hobbies, and all the other things that gets thrown into the backburner because when you become a mom and dad, that’s your priority. And of course, we understand that this is how it needs to be: no children ask to be born, and making this choice involves all those responsibilities. Some are able to balance being a parent with all the other things in life, and some end up feeling “trapped“ in their own self-made bed, regretting their life choices, regretting getting older, and putting the blame on the children they chose to have. This by itself doesn’t turn them all into child-killing crazies, of course, but something in this movie triggers these deep-laden feelings. It is not entirely clear what actually caused the murderous rampage by parents, except we know it’s got something to do with the static that starts playing everywhere.
Mom and Dad is an entertaining movie filled with madness and fun, and fortunately never takes itself too seriously. Cage is in full unhinged Cage-Rage mode which is always a joy to watch, and even Lance Henriksen shows up here as Brent’s dad to push things even further as all the moms and dads are on a killing spree. Overall a good time, despite not getting much of a conclusion to anything.
Writer and director: Brian Taylor
Country & year: USA/UK, 2017
Actors: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Zackary Arthur, Robert T. Cunningham, Olivia Crocicchia, Lance Henriksen, Marilyn Dodds Frank, Samantha Lemole, Joseph D. Reitman
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462326/
