Mum & Dad

source: Mum & Dad

Steven Shiel intimated that he had made an urban Texas Chainsaw Masacre and he is partially right. But Mum and Dad is so much more than this and it is almost as if that film has collided with Happiness making the film definitely not everyones cup of tea. In fact it should be noted now that if viewers are in the least bit offended or squeamish then this film is definitely not for them and in the showing we saw at the Edinburgh Film Festival a number of people left the cinema. I've watched innumerable horror films but this definitely made me draw breath and the subject matter deals with clear sadistic and masochistic imagery. Which may make you wonder why I'm throwing nine stars in its direction. The real reason for this is all that I've said aside the film is excellent from start to finish. It has been a long time since I have felt so uncomfortable in a cinema and felt the tension of those people besides me rise as the visuals and dialogue become more severe. Shiels has managed firstly to get an ensemble cast willing to act and deal with the subject matter of the movie and secondly, well, they're all really good. Although you wonder how their agents sold them the film? He also manages to do those things both Tobe Hooper and Marcus Nispel fail to in their movies (Hooper more to do with censorship) right there on the screen. It gives the characters a horrific depth and depravity shoving it all in your face. Sound (it is just sound) and camera work is also very fine giving clear shots of what you probably really don't want to see. I found the experience thrilling a feeling I really haven't felt to that degree for a long time in the cinema and not for the length of a film. Loses one star for the fact that it is another "version" of Tobe Hooper's great film - but at least it "grabs the bull by the horns" for it's total length.

I have just returned from a screening of this film, perhaps badly chosen on boxing day evening after a lovely family day out. I have to say that for the first time in my life I walked out halfway through this film, at the point where 'dad' tells a terrified Lena about the birth of his severely lacerated,vomit-covered disabled, incest-born daughter (shortly after the film suggests that both the mother and father have been ritually raping her). Don't misunderstand me: I think the film was well made, competently acted and extremely impressive in terms of the small budget. I don't scare easily, have a healthy sense of humour and have always thought Mary Whitehouse was a parade-pissing old cow. I have never seen anything that I deemed worthy of censoring until tonight. My problem with this film is that rather than turning the traditional British family on it's head, is that it all too brazenly reflects some all too close to home truths. With headlines in all our papers about Baby P, Fritzl etc this film is far from darkly comic. I stopped laughing when i started to think how easily this could be a very real scenario in the homes of Fred and Rosemary West, perhaps Myra Hindley and Ian Brady? If you haven't seen this film yet, maybe while you watch it you can imagine that right now something very similar is occurring in a number of bungalows across the country, in hidden rooms, behind net curtains.

Mum & Dad is twisted, dark and very sick. Not everyone's cup of tea, but well worth the time of every horror film fan. The film displays great taste in recognising it's lineage: not just Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but also (perhaps more crucially) British Horror Films of the 1970's and in particular Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (from the great Freddie Francis) and Pete Walker's excellent Frightmare. This above all else (great cinematography, a graphic style, low budget, pitch black streak of humour and great writing) is truly refreshing: here is an honest to goodness British Horror film, not afraid to stand on it's own two feet as independent to most of what the genre seems to be churning out, particularly from the USA. This is real horror - it's not just about shocks or scares (though there are plenty)- it's about revulsion, disturbing... horror! It's time there was a British revival in Horror and Mum & Dad is full of the Gothic, stylish and sadistic style that once informed a crucial part of the genre. As such Mum & Dad heralds a return of serious horror films for adults!

You sometimes wonder what commissioning editors are thinking of. This stinking movie was released simultaneously in cinema, on DVD and on Sky Box office today and I thought it might be a wry take on the genre of bad taste horror. Nope. It was just bad taste and very badly conceived. Supposedly it was a "take" on the life of the Wests. It was a "take" we could manage without quite frankly because it gave no insight whatsoever into the criminal mind. The fact that the BBC commissioned it, but gave it to Sky to air it, says everything. I very much doubt it will ever be seen on a BBC channel. It's sh@t. It's nasty and if its makers claim that it is ironic or post modern; or something...they're wrong; it's not. It's just substandard claptrap taking the Hostel/Saw genre (which used to be called video nasties) and adding nothing to it. The Daily Mail would probably call it *. For once I might agree with them.

Loosely inspired by Fred and Rosemary West sick murderous activity "Mum and Dad" doesn't disappoint when it comes to brutality.Mum and Dad and their 'adopted' children,Birdie & Elbie,work at the airport.The family live off whatever they scavenge from cargo holds,offices and hotels - including a steady stream of transient workers who populate the airport's soulless hub.When Lena,a young Polish office cleaner,is befriended by Birdie,she gets drawn into a nightmarish world of torture,murder and perversity.Imprisoned in a suburban House of Horrors and designated a 'Mummy's Girl',Lena's only options appear to be to become part of the family-and join them in their insanity-or die painful death.The film despite its general misanthrophy and unsettling violence plays like a black comedy.It certainly has plenty of humorous moments to relieve the tension.It's quite disturbing and torture-laden too.8 out of 10.

I wanted to give this chance because it was a British film, but I was unprepared for the depravity on show here. I cannot believe that the BBC saw fit to be involved with this awful piece of 'torture *', and following their recent lapses of judgement, this will be more ammunition for the people who think 'Auntie' has lost her way. I for one object that part, however little, of my licence fee has gone into funding this obscene film. I love horror films, but this just went too far, and I never want to see it again. Finally, I'm surprised that this got past the censors, it truly shows how desensitised people have become, and why the human race is truly on a downward spiral when this is considered to be entertainment.

I love the previous comments about "ground breaking horror". What new ground does it break exactly?! Tired, sadistic old claptrap done a millions times better in a million other movies. This is a never-mind- the-quality-feel-the-width project: let's get the Daily Mail readers snorting and a few headlines and try and whip up some headlines to cover up the lack of direction and writing talent. If you want to see how low-budget and effective horror should work go see (REC) and thats the Spanish original and not the daft remake. Awful, awful, awful. Makes me ashamed to be British :-)

From the first scene where we are expected to believe the main protagonist is Polish when she has a broad Californian accent to the hammy acting of "The Family" themselves, this is just dreadful, badly written, badly acted and badly directed rubbish. It echoes lots of other films, most far better than this one. There is no real tension in the film at all, as its clear from the start that each attempt to escape will fail, until the last one, and that the heroine will probably have her revenge in some form as heroines usually do in these post feminist times. The best imagery in the whole thing is the Christmas decorations and the best lines are vaguely humorous, not threatening, although this is not a funny film. I can see that there is a subtext presenting a satire on the traditional working class family as portrayed in soap operas and Mike Leigh films (at his worst) but this is laid on thick and obvious and is at worse as patronising to the subject as to the viewer. For a far better murderous dysfunctional family horror (if that's a genre), watch the french film "Satan", its far better.

I'm somewhat of a glutton for punishment, when it comes to UK horror films. I keep trying them, hoping for something half decent, and more times than not I eject the disc before the 40 minute mark of the DVD, dejected and disappointed. This film started off a little slow, not really giving anything away, which kept me watching to see what the hook was. I wasn't disappointed at all. The acting, in my opinion was quite good, although I'm no expert on such things, the characters were believable. The script was good enough to keep my attention to the end of the film, which I have to admit doesn't happen a lot these days. I'm not really sure I'd class the film as a horror, in the truest sense of the word, but it was certainly dark, with a good mix of humour thrown in. Some very unnerving moments (I won't spoil anything), really sold by the actors involved, often without dialogue. I would certainly recommend you give it a try.