Bob Balaban’s Parents (1989) is a suburban nightmare simmering with 1950s nostalgia and unspoken horror. 

Set in a picture-perfect neighborhood where every lawn is trimmed and every dinner is served with a smile, the film follows 10-year-old Michael (Bryan Madorsky), an anxious boy who begins to suspect that his seemingly perfect parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) have a taste for something far more sinister than meatloaf. As Michael’s paranoia grows, so does the film’s creeping dread, blending dark comedy with unsettling psychological horror until the truth becomes impossible to ignore.

Balaban crafts a world where wholesome family values curdle into something grotesque, using pastel-colored kitchens and cheerful jingles to mask the film’s undercurrent of menace. Randy Quaid’s eerie performance as the overbearing father oozes quiet menace, while Michael’s growing fear warps his reality into a surreal fever dream of butchered meat and sinister smiles. A wickedly satirical take on Cold War-era repression and the horrors lurking behind the American Dream, Parents is an unnerving descent into childhood terror—where dinner might just bite back.

Though largely overlooked upon release, Parents has developed a devoted cult following, earning praise for its unsettling atmosphere and biting social critique. Filmmaker Ken Russell even compared it to Blue Velvet, boldly declaring it the superior film. A work as hilarious as it is deeply disturbing, Parents evokes the unsettling unease of Eraserhead and the grotesque satire of Society, creating a uniquely nightmarish vision of familial horror.