Tenth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #8 Mom and Dad

 2018's Mom and Dad, from the Crank director, is a very dark horror-comedy.  It's of the thriller variety, however, garnering its genre from the bloody violence; there is no suspense or dread - and only one brief, throwaway scene is at all creepy.  It does have a positively unhinged Nicolas Cage, however.

It seems like your typical day in typical suburban America: middle-aged parents bemoaning what has become of their lives, snarky teenagers and little kids who should be in school but who are home for some reason (seriously: why wasn't young Josh at school? Was he home sick?  Did I miss that?).  Until a mysterious and unexplained broadcast turns all the parents into homicidal maniacs - but only with respect to their own children.  They don't turn into rage-zombies or hulk out; they retain their personalities and revert back to normal, albeit with no remorse about murdering their children. 

Teenaged Carly escapes the frenzy at her school and runs home to get her brother (the aforementioned Josh) out of the house before their parents - played by a puffy Nic Cage and seemingly much-younger Selma Blair (who is actually 47 to Cage's 55) - get home.  Trapped in the house, it's a cat and mouse game played with knives, meat-tenderizers, wire hangers, a Sawzall and a redirected gas line.

Mom and Dad is ridiculous and very bad in a batshit, kind of awesome midnight movie way.  Did I mention a cameo by Lance Henriksen as Cage's dad?  It's violent and rather dark (see: parents murdering their children on-screen) but not scary in any way.  The only creepy scene takes place in the hospital as a row of dads stare intently through the nursery window at their newborn babies.