Directed by Steven Sheil
Review based on a theatrical preview in 2008
What is it about UK horror movies in 2008? It seems that British filmmakers are experiencing more than their fair share of anger at the moment, primarily directed at the condition of society. Where “Eden Lake” talks about the dismemberment of the generation gap (pun completely intended here), “Mum & Dad” takes the same concerns and focuses them squarely in the nuclear family.
Written and directed by Steven Sheil, “Mum & Dad” is a low budget shocker whose production values belie what unfolds on screen. The piece is top-notch, all involved carrying off a challenging script which could so easily have turned into an unbelievable parody of similar flicks.
“Mum & Dad” is essentially what the director himself refers to as ‘The Heathrow Airport Chainsaw Massacre’, and carries it’s 70’s exploitation roots with sheer pride. However, whilst such comparisons are inevitable, “Mum & Dad” stands easily on it’s own two disfigured legs.
The movie opens with a great deal of noise, aurally assaulting the audience with numerous shots and sounds of aeroplanes taking off from Heathrow Airport. Although as the narrative unfolds the racket quietens slightly, that memorable beginning is echoed across the entire running time through the constant use of droning white noise at two-minute intervals. Shiels wants to unsettle from the beginning, and his use of non-diegetic soundtrack not only heightens the realism but also brilliantly punctuates the madness that unfolds on-screen.
We first meet Lena (Olga Fedori) and Birdie (Ainsley Howard) whilst working in a particularly disgusting airport toilet as cleaners. Birdie is immediately draw
n to the newly arrived immigrant, and they strike up a rather strange friendship. Olga is introduced to her mute and apparently mentally disabled brother Elbie (Toby Alexander), and after a mix-up with transport the three of them walk to Birdie’s house with the intention of giving their new friend a lift home. Shortly after arriving, Lena is brutally attacked and knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant.She wakes several hours later tied to a bed, and is told by Mum (Dido Miles) that she will be systematically beaten if she doesn’t do her chores or attempts to escape from her new surrogate family. Only if she accepts her fate will she truly become one of their ‘children’, as both Birdie and Albie have already done. Lena learns that if she misbehaves in any way that she will have to answer to Dad (Perry Benson), a truly repulsive father figure who is prone to murder at the blink of an eye and gets sexual stimulation from torture and violence.
Out of sheer terror and a need to survive, Lena manages to win Mum’s trust, and much to Birdie’s rage is on the cusp of becoming a true member of this extremely twisted and dysfunctional family. But is she really prepared to accept her fate, or is she simply biding her time? The answer comes at a price for all concerned…
“Mum & Dad” has at its rotten core a real affection for the kind of nasty 70’s exploitation shockers that hardened genre fans used to watch on grainy pirated copies back in the 1980’s during the Video Nasties scandal. It’s ironic to note that the country responsible for creating such censorship furore just twenty years ago is now producing material that is potentially more extreme than the flicks it originally sought to ban. This is even more bizarre when you consider that Steven Sheil received considerable funding for this project from both the National Lottery Film Council and the BBC.
This film contains some incredible performances, and a razor-sharp script that creates a genuinely disturbing sense of foreboding throughout. Sheils (in his first feature) directs with confidence and panache to give the piece a uniquely British feel that should ensure it dates less than some of the movies it seeks to emulate. There are several savagely memorable moments to be found here, such as the first meeting between Olga and Dad, where the latter is bloody and enraged after having to take care
of one of his ‘children’. To emphasise the point even more harshly, moments later Albie is seen removing the shrink-wrapped dismembered body parts through the kitchen. This, combined with a truly repulsive sequence involving Dad’s sexual fetish for butchered human organs (yes, you read that correctly) gives the film a punch unlike any other, and it goes straight for the gut.“Mum & Dad” is undeniably the strongest film that the BBC has ever produced. Whether it will be released theatrically or not remains to be seen (although how some of this material will escape unscathed from the BBFC is anyone’s guess), but it certainly deserves to be seen by the wide audience who lapped up the old-school horrors of decades past. It is an unflinching and aggressive movie with an important message about the nuclear family, which deserves to stand proudly amongst the classics of the exploitation sub-genre. A beautifully photographed and challenging piece of work, Shiels is definitely a talent to watch, and it’s incredible to think that Britain in 2008 is producing such quality original material, whereas the Hollywood machine is focussing on horror remakes simply because they have nothing fresh to offer.
8 out of 10
A real British nasty... It really is "The Heathrow Airport Chainsaw Massacre"
