A
family known as the Laemele's moves into
a new suburban neighborhood but their son
named Michael (Bryan Madorsky) is very
disturbed and nervous as his father Nick
(Randy Quaid) is working overtime and is
always bringing home what he calls
laundry since he knows what his fathers
profession is by working in a mortuary.
To top it all off they are always
barbequing tons of meat and having many
leftovers as the meat they're making
doesn't look like everyday meals that
others eat.
He eats very little and continues to have
nightmares by drowning in a pool of blood
or his parents doing deadly deeds with
people or themselves and represents his
horrifying dreams to school and is forced
to meet with a social worker named Millie
Dew (Sandy Dennis) as she tries to talk
to little Mikey but he behaves too quiet
and self centered.
Michael also doesn't see eye to eye with
his father as he acts obnoxious and
verbally abusive towards him especially
that his new neighbor and schoolfriend
Sheila Zellner (Juno Mills Cockell) is
manipulating him to do things he's not
allowed to do.
Michael is afraid of the basement and
encounters something awful after going
down there and this time it's no
nightmare.
There's a good distance shot on the
nieghborhood as well as the old cadillac
with the Laemle family in the vehicle going to their new home.
We have a good d conversation with Michael being afraid to go to his room cause
it's dark and his father Nick talking to
him that everything is dark at night and
says it in a not so sane way then a good
shot picking up up to his room with a
good camera shot showing the actions.
We have a good shot on both Nick and Mary's feet walking to a fridge
discussing on having leftovers which
gives you a good chill.
We have a good shot on Michael taking off his pajama top and then a slow
motion shot on him diving into his bed
and then a disturbing creepy nightmare
shot on his bed turning into a bloodbath.
There's a corny moment on Miss Baxter introducing
herself as a school teacher and then
introducing both Michael and Sheila Zellner with their
discussions.
There's a decent conversation with both Michael and Sheila after school
having their discussions with Miss Baxter telling tall tales to him about her
living on the moon etc.
A good scene at the dinner table
with the family having discussions as well as Michael telling them about his new
girlfriend and where she lives as well as an intimidating moment on what Nick is being demanding towards him on this girl. Certainly had an effective dark moment.
We have a good shot on Michael walking out of his room in the hallway
and then a good flash shot on his parents making out in the
living room with sheets all over the
floor along with a perfect evil and
aggressive shot on Nick.
There's a good conversation between Millie Dew as a social worker talking to
Mary about her son's disturbed problems
as she acts kooky saying
everything is fine at home as she shows
good nervous emotions.
We have a corny conversation with Nick and Mary playing cards with a neighborly
couple as the dark comedy tries to fit in
but fails.
A good scene with Sheila manipulating Michael to do
stuff in his room as well as them spying
on their parents playing cards.
There's good close up shots on Mary making
meatloaf with her hands being menacing on
the beef along with Michael in
a closet staring at her. Then we have
shots on some sausage wrapping around him which tried to make the film look funny
but it fails big time.
Good shot on Sheila sitting in a tree talking to Michael as well as her jumping down and the two
of them running into his house and
messing around with some food in the
fridge as well as a good shot on her running into the basement and
swigging some wine with him trying to stop her.
We also have good shots on Michael trying to search for Sheila and
then spotting her in his freezer swigging
back the wine and then an interesting
moment with the two of them goofing off.
We have a great intimidating reaction
with Nick telling Michael a
nasty bedtime story verbally abusing him
which makes you cringe and wonders if
he's about to hurt him.
We have some good shots on Michael hiding underneath a stretch with a corpse
lying on top and Nick doing
surgery which gives you a bad feeling
that it's done really dark.
A cold moment with Nick driving by Michael walking on
the side of the street telling him to get
in along with a good shot on a white
blanket covering something in the back
trunk.
There's a reaction on Mary after finding out information on what Nick tells her that he has laundry in the back
of his trunk which looked very corny but
creepy too as this scene looked
very suitable.
We have good shots on Michael's feet walking in the hallway as well as
walking down the stairs to the basement.
There's also a good shot on Michael by looking at stuff in the dark basement as
well as hooks near him. Then a good shot
on him looking up and spotting a corpses
foot on a hook.
We have a good panicking moment with
Michael running into his house with Millie trying to keep up with him showing her
the basement and then a great shot on a
corpse tumbling with a perfect scream and then the camera shooting through a vent
and other areas of the house.
We have a good shot on Millie being pushed into a closet with a knife
trying to stab at her and then when she
tries to escape a good shot on a golf
club aiming towards her head.
There's a good slow motion shot on Michael swinging a baseball bat
towards Nick while he's
bringing in some barbeque meat with a
good slow shot on him falling to the
ground.
A good shot on Nick cutting
a piece of meat and then trying to get Michael to eat with another good slow motion shot
on him stabbing him with a
knife.
Bottom line is that the makers tried to make
this a dark comedy and a spoof to those
sitcoms from the 1950's but it really
falls flat as there's nothing funny about
this film. The film is very dark, sick, twisted and
disturbing with a bad plot to top it all
off. There's alot of gruesome
hallucinations and such twisted moments
too. You kinda feel sorry for the poor child
as you wonder if he's eating at all and
how can he live the way he is too.
The film is saved from being bombed due
to a descent performance and some good
dark creepy moments too. You'll know what
I mean when this child goes down to the
basement which is every child's worst
fear at night but when you watch this
film you'll feel he has every reason to
be so.
The acting is in
good shape as we get a terrific
performance by Randy Quaid (Nick Laemle) as
the canniballistic and evilly nasty
family man in the film as he really
brings his character across well that you
wouldn't want to mess with him. He showed
awesome aggressions and is convincingly
crazy too. Does well with his intimidating and stern
attitude about not wanting to hear the
lies that was being told to his onscreen son and being
demanding towards him to eat his meat. He does well asking his onscreen son on where he
found his scissors he uses at his work and does well by forcing
the truth out of him and then stabbing
the scissors into some meat. There's a perfect greeting
by him sitting on his onscreen son's bed
and demanding to him where he's been. Does well picking
his onscreen son up and screaming in a rage after he was stabbed.
Mary Beth Hurt (Mary Laemle) does a slapstick job
as the passive canniballistic wife who
does well with her nervous actions and
comes across as someone who isn't all
there. She shows
good nervous emotions when an onscreen social worker talks to her about her onscreen son's issues. She reacts very well in a scene when the onscreen husband tells her he brought home some laundry as she does this in a kooky but creepy fashion.
Sandy Dennis (Millie Dew) looked like a total
basket case than a social worker but yet
she shows her kindess and concerns quite
well proving worthy to her part
nevertheless. She delivered a perfect scream after she finds something shocking.
Bryan
Madorsky (Michael Laemle) seems to pull his part well
as a disturbed and tense child of the
family showing no expressions to his part
and great nervousness too. Does well in a scene by trying
to make up a story and getting scared while being questioned. A great shocked
reaction on him after spotting something shocking and then running away and going
into his room. A shame he
never carried on with his acting career
but again he was very tense in his role
it's hard to see what else he can do.
Juno Mills Cockell (Sheila Zellner) is perfect as the
troublemaking next door neighbor and
shows great energy to her character
making her a good key memeber to the
film.
We have little
Michael drowning in a bloodbath during a
nightmare sequence
There's a bloody arm in a garbage
disposer with blood pouring down a
refrigerator during another nightmare
sequence.
We also have insides of a corpse.
There's a part of a leg hanging on a hook
in a basement.
Some great
thumping sounds along with some hissing
effects too as it truly brings out the
horror for this plot. We also have the
odd sharp violing playing and some
trumpet and saxophone music to make this
film a 50's feel to it all composed by Jonathan
Elias.
Nick Laemle: Kids!!!
Who made the little bastards!!!! |
