01
The Stepfather
Why this pick
Pairs immaculate suburban normality with a child’s escalating sense that the family home is dangerously wrong, sustaining the same uneasy, darkly comic domestic paranoia.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1989 1h 21m CAN
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Parents
ComedyDramaHorror
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Parents, try these.
01
02
The People Under the Stairs
Why this pick
Its grotesque vision of a seemingly respectable household turns childhood fear into lurid, satirical horror, with an off-kilter blend of menace and absurdity close to Parents.
03
The Reflecting Skin
Why this pick
A boy’s perspective transforms sunlit 1950s Americana into a dreamlike nightmare, balancing innocence, disturbing imagination, and exquisitely uncanny suburban imagery.
04
Society
Why this pick
Another Reagan-era suburban nightmare in which adolescent alienation becomes body horror; it shares Parents’ satirical distrust of polished family life and steadily mounting unreality.
05
The Monster Squad
Why this pick
For the child-centered, retro-horror side of Parents: kids confront monsters amid suburbia, with a playful 1950s-horror sensibility and affectionate dark comedy rather than outright bleakness.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Ten-year-old Michael Laemle has moved with his parents Nick and Lily from Massachusetts to a new neighborhood in 1954 suburbia. As Michael is very socially awkward and also has an overly active imagination, he has trouble making friends at school. He is also prone to extremely weird dreams, such as dreaming that he has jumped into bed- only for it to collapse into a pool of blood.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Mary Beth Hurt
Lily Laemle
Sandy Dennis
Millie Dew
Kathryn Grody
Miss Baxter
Wayne Robson
Lab Attendant
Randy Quaid
Nick Laemle
Deborah Rush
Mrs. Zellner
Graham Jarvis
Mr. Zellner