The Parenting is a pretty good horror/comedy that gets a boost for its title. It reminds me of The Shining, The Blackening, The Happening, and Highlander II: The Quickening. (<SIDE NOTE>Some of these movies listed are slightly better than others</SIDE NOTE>).

A gay couple want their parents to meet so they rent an old oversized house to have a Meet the Parents weekend. Seems like an extra step too many for a get-together… but the movie needs the old dark house for corny haunted house routine full of cliches and arch comments about said cliches.

What it all comes down to is whether the movie made me laugh. Well, I chuckled enough times at the haunting and possession gags… but also the line delivery from some of the actors. I mean, we have Lisa Kudrow doing her Lisa Kudrow thing… only it’s about ghosts and demons so its 10% funnier.

Also amusing, the demon in the house is very homophobic… or at least he snarks a bunch of cliches just to annoy people. Probably shouldn’t laugh, but it’s kind of funny to think of a demon as rude and anti-LGBTQ. Because why wouldn’t they be? Only thing keeping them down normally is the sensibilities of filmmakers and the audience.

Anyhow, this is hardly an amazing movie and it does spin its wheels sometimes, but it hits more than it misses. Good, fun cast covering some good, fun horror cliches. That’s fun.

Score: 80