Max dropped a new horror-comedy this Friday— er, I mean, Thursday— the 13th. The premise is simple: boyfriends Josh (Brandon Flynn) and Rohan (Nik Dodani) book a beautiful old house for a weekend vacation to meet each others’ parents. Murphy’s Law quickly takes effect. Also, there’s a demon.
The Parenting features an impressive lineup, including Lisa Kudrow (Friends), Dean Norris (Breaking Bad), Brian Cox (Succession), Parker Posey (The White Lotus), Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why), Nik Dodani (Atypical), and Edie Falco (The Sopranos). You might recognize director Craig Johnson from critical hits like Alex Strangelove (2018) and The Skeleton Twins (2014).
Everyone involved is in top form. The cast has phenomenal chemistry. The cinematography is more serviceable than spectacular, but the tone and pacing is consistent throughout, and Johnson strikes a great balance between scares and jokes.
Of course, most horror-comedies skew noticeably towards one or the other, and The Parenting is no exception. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the cast, The Parenting succeeds primarily as a comedy. It’s rarely truly “scary,” although it does manage some solidly creepy visuals. Once again, the actors really sell the script. Every time a joke feels predictable or overdone, someone delivers a grounded reaction with such perfect comedic timing you can’t help but laugh out loud.
There are moments that feel noticeably contrived— how often are we supposed to believe these characters would actually say the WiFi password out loud, in full, with perfect Latin pronunciation?— but we’re obviously never supposed to take the setup very seriously. The horror is a vehicle for the comedy, and it accomplishes that purpose with flair.
The Parenting ultimately works because, despite its supernatural trappings, it’s a deeply human story. We all know the mortification of massively fumbling an important first impression. We’ve all been desperate for family to like our partner, and for our partner to like our family, and for their family to like us. Most of us can relate to the pressure of living up to our parents’ expectations, and parents will understand the difficulty of letting their kids grow into their own people.
Whether you’re in the mood to laugh or scream, coo or cringe— The Parenting has a little something for everyone.
The Parenting is now streaming on Max.