Mum & Dad Reviews

I wanted to check out something crazy and gory, but not quite so glum like say Cannibal Holocaust. It might still not be a particularly joyful story though. Steven Sheil has only one other film of which I've never heard of. Other than that I really don't know much else. Let's see if it was worth the choice.

Yeah that definitely wasn't very joyful. It's also much different than I was expecting. The gore wasn't insane as you would expect. Although when things happened was particularly brutal. The way it is shot kind of gives it a more realistic feel as well. I found some shots and scenes were done very uniquely. Some things were pretty gross like one particular thing with the meat. I thought the concept was brilliantly disturbing. There were some great little turn of events. The ending was insane but well done.

The family here was quite messed up and just sick. The acting is great though. Our lead doesn't do much talking, but her emotion acting was excellent. Honestly besides her the only other character I liked was Elbie. I felt bad for him because he was so brainwashed and broken that he was too scared to defy the family. Dad was one of the most disturbing characters with some really gross habits. Mum was a little softer, but don't take that for granted. Birdie was just so messed up that she could pass as normal until she was out of the open. I felt bad for the other sister though. Anyways the characters are definitely interesting.

This was quite disturbing and totally not what I had expected. The style of the story is unique. The concept itself is actually something different and creepy. The characters were all very interesting albeit complete sickos. I thought the ending was quite good and insane. It's not a great film, but it definitely keeps you from being bored.

The movie world is made up of four different kinds of families- the normal families (much less common than the latter varieties, and debatable, as no family is totally normal,) offbeat families, and crazy families, for starters. Then there's the titular 'Mum & Dad' clan, which brings us to the scariest and most dangerous variety- umpteen steps past crazy, and reveling in the own perversion.

It's hard to even call them family, as such. Only one child, the severely brain-damaged Angela (Miciah Dring,) is their own. The others are kidnapped additions brainwashed into adhering to the others rules. These are vindictive Birdie (Ainsley Howard) and her silent 'brother,' Elby (Toby Alexander.) It kind of reminds me of the 1970 horror film "Girly," in which 'new friends' are brought forcibly into a family of depraved Brits, If "Girly" were applied with the visceral brutality of a blunt hammer.

The newest addition is quiet Polish immigrant Lena (Olga Fedori,) who meets the loquacious Birdie at the airport where they both clean. Lean isn't stupid, she's just awfully polite- too polite to follow her instincts. When Birdie and Elby 'accidentally' make Lena miss her bus, she goes home with them, against her own better judgment.

Enter 'Mum and Dad' (Dido Miles and Perry Benson.) Mum is a manipulative, slick sexual deviant. Dad is also a deviant, who hits Lena over the head and rapes raw meat in front of his family (the camera then closes in on the cum in the meat *gags*.) It's the kind of family relatively normal people stay away from, and Lena is not only determined to survive, but to escape.

To remain free of all pretenses, I will just call a spade a spade- this is a torture flick, competently executed, but mostly devoid of any higher purpose, deeper meaning, or pathos. It does sport, however, an intense and cleverly executed ending, and decent acting (best from Dido Miles, who plays a soft-spoken psychopath so well.) As a note to people who, like myself, can stomach graphic violence but have trouble with sexual assault, there are no rape scenes in this film, although sexual perversion is prevalent.

Lena is a likable heroine, and although she certainly doesn't bring about fascination, the viewer will want to see her through. The film is primarily set in the home of the killers, with shots of airplanes soaring overhead, conveying a feeling of distance and one's desperate need of rescue going unnoticed. Now that I have called a spade a spade, I recommend "Mum & Dad" to extreme horror buffs and those with (very) strong stomachs.

Written and directed by Steven Shiel , Mum & Dad is a lovely rendition of the classic kidnap and torture motif.
Lena ( Olga Fedori) starts working as a member of a janitorial airport staff where she meets Birdie (Ainsley Howard) and her mute brother Elbie (Toby Alexander). After getting to know each other and finding out that Lena is estranged from her family, Birdie & Elbie ask Lena out for a drink. Lena politely declines, and the pair then seemingly purposefully make Lena miss her bus ride home. Being hospitable people, they invite Lena back to their home and insist that once there, they will make sure to get her home quickly and safely.
Once they arrive, Lena is drugged and bound to a bed in a rundown looking bedroom and awakes to the sounds of a young girl being bludgeoned to death. The father of the family, dad, and his wife, mum, enter through separate doors just seconds apart from each other. Dad is saturated in blood and looks as though he cannot wait to get his hands on Lena, while mum tries to calm her, and insists that because she’s hers no harm will come to her.
As the film progresses, Lena is superficially tortured, and put through the mental anguish of trying to escape and being “punished” upon her failures.
The movie ends with Christmas in October, where the family nails a dying boy to the wall in a crucifixion manner and has their badly scarred and clearly abused secret mentally handicapped daughter hunched over in a wheel chair. There are gifts to be given and dances to be had, and after Lena is given her gift, a dress, Birdie and Elbie are told to escort her upstairs to help her try it on.
She is then bound back to her bed, and begins her final attempt to escape. She’s successful, and kills off the family with exception to Elbie, who was never blatantly cruel to her.
With the catch, torture, kill concept being so classic and debatably overdone, you need something more in a film to keep you interested. While the torture and death scenes are not terribly impressive, the dialogue and relationships between the characters are interesting enough to make up for it. The script seems to be well written, and the execution of the idea was also done well.
I must say that the ending scene of Christmas in October was a fine addition to take the “weird” and the intention to make the audience uncomfortable to the next level. This film is in no way superb or worth a five star rating, but it is better than a lot of things I’ve seen recently. I give it credit for its follow through and for a well executed idea.