‘Parents can be bloody murder’
Mum & Dad is a 2008 British horror film about a young Polish immigrant working as a cleaner at an airport who is invited to the family home of a co-worker. Unfortunately, this turns sinister quickly as the family intend to ‘adopt’ her…
Written and directed by Steven Sheil, the 2am Films-EM Media-Film London production stars Perry Benson, Dido Miles, Olga Fedori and Ainsley Howard.
Plot:
Mum and Dad, and their ‘adopted’ children, Birdie & Elbie, work at the airport. The family live off whatever they scavenge from cargo holds, offices and hotels – including a steady stream of transient workers who populate the airport’s soulless hub.
When Lena, a young Polish office cleaner, is befriended by Birdie, she gets drawn into a nightmarish world of torture, murder and perversity. Imprisoned in a suburban House of Horrors and designated a ‘Mummy’s Girl’, Lena’s only options appear to be to become part of the family – and join them in their insanity – or die.
Reviews:
“The film is well-made, photographed and lit clearly and professionally. It has a clear and skilful rein on its story. And it works well as a late-night slice of nastiness. Not a great movie, but a perfectly good one that uses disgust rather than true horror for much of its effect.” Eye for Film
” …while the mechanics of Lena’s ordeal have a revolting plausibility to them, you feel that director Steven Sheil has not yet mastered a way of developing tension through camerawork and editing, and as such, this commendable first effort works better as sick comedy than scary horror.” Time Out
“The movie would be quite effective demented horror like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, except, because of the lack of background and perhaps also the choice of actors, it is never convincing and feels nasty just for the sake of being nasty.” The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre
Cast and characters:
Perry Benson … Dad
Dido Miles … Mum
Olga Fedori … Lena
Ainsley Howard … Birdie
Toby Alexander … Elbie
Micaiah Dring … Angela
Mark Devenport … Van Man
Chris Roebuck … Young Man
Clare Dyer … Female Torso (as Claire Dyer)
Penny Andrews … Office Cleaner
Art Fox … Office Cleaner (as Arthur Fox)
Kelly Lammond … Office Cleaner
Leon Lammond … Office Cleaner
Dena Smiles … Office Cleaner
Yvonne Varnier … Office Cleaner
