‘The Parenting’ Movie Review: Cast Summons Scattered Chuckles In Middling Horror-Comedy
Photo from Max
From Jeremy Kibler
At times, The Parenting is a fun horror-comedy in the vein of Joe Dante or Sam Raimi. Yes, at times. Otherwise, it’s pretty flat, earning a few chuckles here and there without really registering on the gateway horror scale, either. So, what’s a horror-comedy to do? It is enjoyable for a spell, due in large part to watching a dream ensemble play together, but the delivery is just never as inspired as its promising setup.
Imagine Meet the Parents in a haunted house. Nik Dodani (Netflix’s Atypical) and Brandon Flynn (Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why) make a cute, likable couple, complementing one another as boyfriends Rohan and Josh, who rent out a country house for a meet-and-greet weekend with the parents. The biggest hurdle seems to be Rohan’s more traditional parents between the critical Sharon (Edie Falco) and Frank (Brian Cox), a man of few words. Josh’s parents, Liddy (Lisa Kudrow) and Cliff (Dean Norris), are much more laid-back, to the point of bringing three dogs Liddy is dog-sitting. Rohan also plans on proposing to Josh, so naturally their best friend Sara (Vivian Bang) has to crash the meeting of the parents. To make matters even more awkward, the rental home is haunted and a demon somehow gets summoned to wreak havoc.
Director Craig Johnson (who gracefully managed a tricky tone with The Skeleton Twins, that 2014 indie gem co-starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig) works up a decent setup from the script by Kent Sublette (Saturday Night Live). It’s all on the page, sure, but the film gets some mileage out of the night-and-day pairings of Edie Falco and Brian Cox versus Lisa Kudrow and Dean Norris. Kudrow, in particular, can’t help but be a total joy as Liddy (not Libby), and Cox is completely game for all of the possession gags, including being in the buff in front of his castmates. Vivian Bang brings a lot of personality to the best friend role as Sara, and while it is only a supporting role yet vital to the story, Parker Posey does what Parker Posey does best: she creates a memorably eccentric creation, here out of bizarre groundskeeper Brenda.
The humor ranges between observant and broad; most amusing of all might be the awkward meeting of the parents, and Josh’s dad wanting to talk about the traffic in getting there ad nauseam is all too relatable. When the jokes devolve more into the wacky and juvenile, they don’t really land. Meanwhile, the paranormal activity is a little spooky, particularly in the opening moments set in the ’80s, but nothing a well-versed horror fan hasn’t seen before.
One would have almost preferred the meet-the-parents situation without the demon, but then we wouldn’t have Lisa Kudrow getting attacked by a demonic pooch. By the end of the night, The Parenting is the kind of movie you wish was better just because you like the cast so much.
Rating: 2/5
The Parenting premieres on Max on March 13, 2025.
