Mom and Dad may be crazy but the indie horror comedy features one of the finest performances from Nicolas Cage in recent years.

Written and directed by Brian Taylor, the film stars Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, and Zackary Arthur.

Mom and Dad feels as if it is the comedic response to The Purge franchise.  Instead of the whole country being allowed a single day to commit crimes, it’s parents who turn on their children in a 24-hour period.  The act is known as Savaging and it’s taking the town by storm.  The premise alone is crazy and drives the humor in this batshit insane film.  The comedy, of course, is what will keep audiences actively engaged in watching the film.  Mom and Dad quickly turns its focus to Brent Ryan (Cage) and his wife, Kendall (Blair), as the parents that decide to murder their own children, Carly (Winters) and Joshua (Arthur).  It’s up to Carly and Joshua to fend for themselves.

Brent works a meaningless job, with some regrets, to keep the family up while his wife, Kendall, wasn’t ready to return to the workforce after taking care of the family for the last 16 years.  When Kendall finally feels confident to return to the workforce, the workforce says no.  Because of his regrets and her own issues, their relationship is falling apart as the two drift further away from each other.  The only reason they remain together are because of their children and let’s just say, well, you’ll have to see this insane film for yourself.

The performance from Cage is one of his finest performances in recent years.  He’s not altogether over the top but for a brief moment or two, Cage does Cage and it’s absolutely perfect as he reaches for hysterical heights.  One has not lived a full life until watching Cage sing-scream the Hokey Pokey while beating the shit out of a pool table with a sledgehammer.  His performance alone is reason enough to recommend the horror comedy.  Taylor has worked with Cage before in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance so it’s not like he wasn’t familiar with what he was getting going into the project.

The running time of 83 minutes is on the short side but it’s not a bad thing.  It should play to the horror comedy’s advantage on the way to developing a cult following.

Following its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, Momentum Pictures will release Mom and Dad in Theaters, on VOD and Digital HD on January 19, 2018.  In the Chicago area, the film will screen for a week at Facets Cinematheque.