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Lena: Olga Fedori
Dad: Perry Benson
Mum: Dido Miles
Birdie: Ainsley Howard
Elbie: Toby Alexander
Angela: Micaiah Dring
Van Man: Mark Devenport
Young Man: Chris Roebuck
Female Torso: Clare Dyer
Mum & Dad
are normally the two people you can rely on life the most, even if they do get on your nerves from time to time while growing up,
but the pair in this movie really do take the biscuit.
I first saw the lead actress, Olga Fedori (right), in an episode of
Doctors
in January this year as she played the young Russian floozy of a middle-aged man who she claimed had made her pregnant. Then
I saw she was in this movie and I had to take a look as she's very attractive.
In this film, she's Polish, working as an office cleaner at Heathrow's Terminal 4, and living in London, but not with her
parents. The job's far from the greatest and while being reluctant to speak to too many people, she'll make the best of what
she can with young, mouthy Birdie (Ainsley Howard) and her brother Elbie (Toby Alexander), who never says a word.
As her evening pans out, she misses the last bus home and ends up back at their house on the promise of their father giving
her a lift home.
What comes next is a nightmare of epic proportions and plays out like an extended episode of Dexter - without the morals - meets the
The Jim Rose Circus,
while living in Josef Fritzl's cellar! I don't want to say much more about the incredible things that you discover in this film
because it would just be spoilers, but let's just say that the twosome playing Mum and Dad (Perry Benson & Dido Miles, below-right)
are perfect for each other!
When they do look normal, the family seemed a bit like the '80s comedy series Bread, at one point, as they showed the
kids bringing home the spoils, although for that series it was money earned from possibly-honest jobs whereas here it's all
stolen, ill-gotten gains.
Overall, Mum & Dad is perverted and sick filth that gets progressively more disgusting with each new scene.... and it's brilliant!
To cap it all, this is Steven Sheil's first full movie as a director, and to that end he deserves a full round of applause as
you would never have known it was his debut since it's just so damn good! A must-see!
The film is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen ratio and doesn't suffer at all from the grim setting. In fact, it excels
in it and brings all the death it nicely to life... if you see what I mean. It was also helped by viewing it upscaled to a
37" plasma screen via an Xbox 360.
And the audio may only be in Dolby Surround, but the echoing hum of the environment hell as planes fly overhead where Lena has
to live gave a permanent chill down my spine for the duration of the movie.
The extras are as follows:
Interview with director Steven Sheil (4:09):
The director tells us why he set out to make this particular film, and how he wanted to make something a bit similar to
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Thankfully, he made something a
damn sight better, and also on a tiny budget of £100,000.
Frightfest Q&A Session with Cast and Crew (5:52):
The director, plus Perry Benson (Dad), Dido Miles (Mum) and Ainsley Howard (Birdie) explain their part in the proceedings.
Film London Interviews (15:48):
More interviews that are well worth a look if you also enjoyed the film, here
from Perry Benson, Steven Sheil, producer Lisa Trnovski, cinematographer Jonathan Bloom, make-up designer Vikki Lawson,
production designer Jess Alexander, special effects supervisor Simon Craze and Sound Mixer Alex Thompson.
Short film: Through a Vulture Eye (3:00):
Three minutes of total grossness - and utterly compelling :)
Mum & Dad: trailer
Mum & Dad: Behind the scenes (3:15):
Various clips of on-set footage during the making of the film, the cast playing up for the camera and both cast and crew
showing a humourous side during filming a story that has no laughs in it whatsoever :)
Note that while most of the above pieces are in anamorphic 16:9, this segment is in 4:3 and the above short film is in a very
wide letterbox ratio (approx 2.66:1).
Trailer (1:25):
In anamorphic 16:9. An extended version of the trailer can be seen to your right, and I think I prefer that version even though
it does give away a bit more, but it's the humour in it that's wonderful.
Audio commentary:
Featuring director Steven Sheil and producer Lisa Trnovsky.
Sadly, there are no subtitles for the DVD and, also the chapters are a bit lacking at only 12 for the 85-minute running
time. Personally, I'd bank on at least one every five minutes plus one each for the opening and closing credits. The menu
features various clips from the film with the music of Gemma Ray's cover version of the song 900 Miles.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Mum & Dad
are normally the two people you can rely on life the most, even if they do get on your nerves from time to time while growing up,
but the pair in this movie really do take the biscuit.
The film is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen ratio and doesn't suffer at all from the grim setting. In fact, it excels
in it and brings all the death it nicely to life... if you see what I mean. It was also helped by viewing it upscaled to a
37" plasma screen via an Xbox 360.