This week has been pretty rough. The Brexit happened, the new Ghostbusters theme is a pile of hot garbage, and Game Of Thrones is coming up on its season finale. Admit it folks, we need a laugh. So we here at Cinema Blend humbly submit to you the following item of news, in an attempt to brighten your spirits. Nicolas Cage has just been cast in a film that sounds like The Visit, only infinitely more hilarious.
Mom and Dad is the name of the film, and Cage has been brought on to star as the "Dad" to Selma Blair's "Mom." Variety broke the story, as well as the logline for the film that sounds oh too familiar. Stop us if you've heard this one:
[Mom And Dad] centers on a teenage girl and her younger brother must survive a 24-hour mass hysteria of unknown origins --- which causes parents to turn violently on their own offspring.
So in addition to The Visit, this new film also sounds like it's mixing in a bit of The Happening's DNA, as well as a healthy reversal of the indie horror film The Children. Add two parts laugh riot, and one part seriously awesome film, shake and add a Nic Cage garnish, and you get Mom and Dad - a movie that could actually be a lot of fun.
With the little knowledge we have about Mom and Dad, we can't help but feel that this thriller will have a severe current of darkly comedic undertones. To tie things up to our opening remarks, it could be an interesting scenario if Nicolas Cage's latest casting choice turned out to be a film that takes on the socially relevant theme of the baby boomer generation attacking its younger counterparts.
After all, horror and sci-fi have been two genres with an excellent track record of taking the issues of the day and analyzing them through making a movie out of them. Of course, the likelihood of the above scenario happening is pretty low, so let's shift over to the more likely possibility: this could be a hell of a grindhouse film.
Playing into both thriller and comedy aspects, Mom and Dad could find its place in the modern revival of the 80's horror film. Nicholas Cage and Selma Blair can both pull off deadly serious and extremely campy, as evidenced throughout their resumes. So with their casting set, we could see a film that would feel right at home with recent horror / thriller hits like You're Next and The Guest.
Or, we could be getting ourselves worked up over what could be mediocre VOD fodder that hits our TVs just weeks after it's released in three screens nationwide. The point is, the potential of Mom and Dad is too great not to explore, especially if it means Nicolas Cage is making a film that doesn't belong on the worse side of his career spectrum.
Mom and Dad will go into production later this year, presumably for a 2017 release date. Here's hoping they go the obvious route and drop this flick on either Mother or Father's Day.
