MUM & DAD

Lena works as an office cleaner at London’s Heathrow airport. When she misses her last bus she accepts an offer of help from co-worker Birdie. She can stay at her house, well, at least at Birdie’s parents’ house. Now, Birdie’s folks are not exactly your average mum and dad. Their favourite pastime is abducting and torturing people. Upon arrival, Lena is knocked down and wakes up chained to a bed. In the next room, she hears a woman screaming her lungs out in pain. Luckily, being Birdie’s friend, Mum is kind enough to offer Lena a place in the “family”, provided she gives a hand and makes an effort to fit in. After all, you wouldn’t want to unleash Dad’s terrifying anger. Sickening and, at times, almost impossible to watch, Mum and Dad is definitely a tour de force. Steven Sheil’s debut feature film is also the first of 10 microscopic-budget films from Microwave Productions, who’ve taken on the challenge of producing fully fledged features for maximum 100 000 £ ( 120 000 € ). Horror film aficionado Sheil describes Mum & Dad as “Brutal and perverse. It’s about the perversity of the family cell… it perniciously distorts something perfectly normal.” Those who know Perry Benson, who plays Dad, from his nerdy underdog parts in popular TV-comedies such as You Rang, M’Lord and Oh, Doctor Beeching are in for a gruesome surprise.