No Ensemble Can Survive The Parenting’s Lame Horror Comedy

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There’s most definitely an art to the bringing together of a solid ensemble for a prospective comedy–make that horror comedy–like Max’s The Parenting, which debuts on the streamer March 13. Beyond checking all of the demographic boxes in an appeal to the streaming common denominator, an ensemble comedy should feel cohesive–like a group of performers who were brought together by an architect with an overarching vision who can see how all the disparate pieces will ultimately fit together and enhance each other. The Parenting, you might be shocked to find, never really feels this way. Rather, this is like the horror comedy equivalent of some producer thumbing through their rolodex, punching in phone numbers and seeing who might be interested in performing a few profanities on camera in exchange for a modest paycheck. And of all the folks this producer approached with a “Meet the Parents meets Evil Dead” pitch, what we’re seeing is the handful who happened to say “Sure, I’ve got a few weeks open on my calendar.”

That’s what Craig Johnson’s The Parenting feels like, a movie of convenience–one that will lean on the recognizable names and faces for all they’re worth, to distract from a weak screenplay, irritating performances and tepid horror bona fides. It’s a single location film that isn’t particularly interested in decreasing the size of its prospective audience by attempting to be legitimately frightening, so it has decided to go all-in on sophomoric humor instead. The few jokes and performances that do land are noisily elbowed and shoved out of the way by the hordes that don’t.

The Parenting is a story built around the merging of a big, mixed family dynamic, with one stuffier and more up-tight clan being introduced to a couple of easygoing Midwestern rubes at a spacious AirBnB mansion that turns out to be the site of a 1980s demonic conjuration and family slaying. The uniting force are family sons Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn), a gay couple from different worlds–Rohan is anxious and fretful to the point of nebbish irritation, while Josh reads as a vacuous himbo who fancies himself a singer-songwriter, though every indication we see on screen is that he is massively untalented in this regard, in addition to perpetually having his foot in his mouth. Rohan has picked this weekend of family bonding as a time to finally propose to Josh, against the advice of best friend Sara (Vivian Bang), who for reasons poorly articulated also shows up to get in on what eventually becomes a Poltergeist-style haunted house yarn, except without the characters that deserve any emotional investment.

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The titular parents, meanwhile, are where the film is really making its viewer appeal: On one side, we have Succession’s Brian Cox as the taciturn Frank, flanked by rigidly judgemental wife Sharon (Edie Falco), playing Rohan’s family. On the other, we have the gratingly dull and direct Cliff (Dean Norris) and kooky Liddy (Lisa Kudrow) as Josh’s mother and father, with Kudrow in particular leaning hard into (sometimes effective) Midwestern “tater tot hotdish” energy, as evidenced by her culinary signature creation: “Crazy noodles.” Oh, and Parker Posey, the queen of the indies herself, also stops by as the addled property manager (in a long, wild, gray braid), who may or may not be drawing a demonic summoning circle around the home in full view of everyone. Subtle, The Parenting is not.

Of these performances, Kudrow and Posey are most able to reach the desired, aloof, not-too-concerned-about-if-we’re-going-to-die comic tone, while Norris is sadly shoved to the background and fails to record much of any impression. Cox is the most interesting case, as his Frank is drawn to the home’s basement by an evil incantation that doubles as the rental’s wifi password–this is what passes for a Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in a 2025 screenplay–and then becomes possessed by the demon. What does that mean in practice? Mostly some nudity and projectile vomiting, and a lot of chatter about his dick, which the film unsurprisingly doesn’t have the guts to actually depict. In addition to the homophobic slurs the demon within Frank begins hurling at Rohan and Josh–Falco excuses it as him being “from a different generation”–what stands out is just how lowbrow and scatalogical the whole thing becomes in its humor. A lot of it feels a bit forced coming out of Cox’s mouth in the wake of all his Succession accolades, although when the demon finally and fully possesses Frank it starts to feel a bit more manic and fun as Cox really embraces the gleeful wildness of some of his more ridiculous dialog. Trapped in a debate with the man within, the demon Cox drops lines like the following: “You ought to be grateful. You won’t have to be alive to see me eat your entire family and shit out their bones.” You do wonder at times why Cox bothered to sign on the dotted line, but the overall effect pinballs between amusing and embarrassing.

More problematic is just how little we care about the film’s central romantic couple and leads, a pair that falls strongly into the pitfall of “Wait, what exactly do these two even like about each other in the first place?” Rohan is meant to read as an anxiously relatable type A personality, but instead comes off as shrill and ineffectual, always speaking down to the guy he professes to love. And Josh is meant to be dripping with sincere himbo charm, but taps into such unstoppable motor-mouthed awkwardness whenever he has to interact with Rohan’s parents that you mostly just want him to mercifully shut his mouth. They’re both upstaged by the A-list parents, and no viewer is going to mind–not when Josh is being depicted as so dumb that he eats a fistful of cannabis gummies in order to “calm down” before a family dinner. What results could that possibly have?

All in all, The Parenting is just a notably scattershot affair, from its poorly defined character relationships, to its questionable pacing (and eventual abrupt ending), to CGI that sometimes looks fine and other times is suddenly and shockingly inept, like what I’d expect to see in a feature from The Asylum or Troma. It’s a film whose idea of fusing horror and comedy is a character being pursued by a demon zombie, who farts when startled and is then embarrassed and begins making excuses so the monster doesn’t judge them. That’s how seriously The Parenting is taking the peril at hand, and that’s about how seriously we can take the film as well.

Director: Craig Johnson
Writer: Kent Sublette
Stars: Nik Dodani, Brandon Flynn, Brian Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Edie Falco, Dean Norris, Vivan Bang, Parker Posey
Release date: March 13, 2025 (Max)

Jim Vorel is Paste’s Movies editor and resident genre geek. You can follow him on Twitter or on Bluesky for more film writing.