Director Craig Johnson gives up the ghost of a promise the movie had going for it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 20, 2025

As a comedy, it stops being funny and as a horror it never starts being scary with Johnson’s direction far too drab and lifeless for something so cartoonish and schlocky. Big swing, bigger miss.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 15, 2025

The ostensibly heartfelt scenes where characters apologize for their behavior or stand up for themselves never display an ounce of emotional potency because no one resembles a real person.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 13, 2025

The cast is game, but the script, by a “Saturday Night Live” writer, Kent Sublette, is puerile and abrasive, lacking the wit of “Evil Dead” and the brio of “Scary Movie.”

| Mar 13, 2025

Director Craig Johnson and screenwriter Kent Sublette (“Saturday Night Live”) find a nice balance for the boo-surprises, creepiness, and humor, with a resolution that brings everything and everyone together.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2025

[The Parenting] is low on genuine scares, but it does boast an appealing cast, whose comic chops elevate the flick slightly above the standard streamer slush.

| Mar 12, 2025

This film’s energy couldn’t power an electric toothbrush.

| Mar 12, 2025

A dismal misfire that strains to meld Meet the Parents-style comedy with The Exorcist-grade horror.

| Mar 12, 2025