Brian Cox & Lisa Kudrow in Max Horror Flick

A couple’s weekend getaway with their parents takes a supernatural turn in The Parenting, an amusing horror adventure directed by Craig Johnson (Wilson, Alex Strangelove) from a screenplay by Kent Sublette (Saturday Night Live). The film, which bows on Max on March 13, is low on genuine scares, but it does boast an appealing cast, whose comic chops elevate the flick slightly above the standard streamer slush. 

Rohan (Nik Dodani, Atypical and Twisters) and Josh (Brandon Flynn, 13 Reasons Why and Manhunt), a sweet couple, are nervous to meet each other’s families. On the drive up to a beautiful countryside mansion, which they have rented for the low cost of $350 a night, the two trade tips and secrets on making the best impression. It’s mostly Rohan trying to prepare his boyfriend for his uptight and judgmental parents. But Josh, a former employee at REI and aspiring musician, is unfazed. Parents love him, he insists, because he’s the chill one.

That sentiment proves to be inapplicable to Rohan’s adoptive parents, Frank (Brian Cox) and Sharon (Edie Falco). They are not amused by Josh’s jokes and are severe when compared to Josh’s laid-back parents, Liddy (Lisa Kudrow) and Cliff (Dean Norris). When the six adults finally meet, an awkward tension contaminates the atmosphere. 

It doesn’t help that the house is also haunted, resulting in creaks and clanking sounds that make it hard to sleep at night. Decades before Rohan and Josh rented the place from Brenda (Parker Posey), a strange woman with a vacant stare and chartreuse eyeshadow, a run-of-the mill family lived on the property. The Parenting opens with a flashback to 1983, on a quiet night in suburbia, where a mother (Kate Avallone) watches the final episode of M*A*S*H, a daughter (Chloe Sciore) fumes in her room and a son (Keith R. Beck) tries to avoid them both. Johnson presents the early spooking with a humorous matter-of-factness. One moment the mother is making dinner and the next a demonic creature has grabbed her ankle, pulling her into the basement. He comes after the children next, and very quickly the whole family disappears. 

According to Brenda, who has bizarre energy and a tendency to trail off mid-thought, the house was abandoned after a fire. She shares this unsolicited information with Rohan and Josh, who quickly find her presence unsettling. The pair is relieved when Brenda hands over a welcome basket — stuffed to the brim with treats like wine, meat sticks and a complimentary creepy doll — and leaves. 

Instead of jumping straight to occult encounters, Johnson lets us spend some time with the family. Early scenes that detail interactions among Josh, Rohan and their parents are by far the funniest parts of the film. The humor in these scenes approaches dad-joke territory, but the comedy sneaks up on you. Plus it’s delightful to see Cox, Falco, Kudrow and Norris playing so well off each other. They capture the stilted awkwardness of two families, who probably don’t like each other all that much, coming together for the first time. Dodani and Flynn hold their own as the anxious children desperate for parental approval even while trying to confidently forge futures without them.

The paranormal activity is instigated, in a silly reoccurring bit, by the Wi-Fi, which turns out to be a Latin curse. The lo-fi Count Orlok puts Frank under a spell one evening after he reads the password aloud. (Why anyone would do that is beyond this critic). He gets possessed, setting off a chain of alarming events.

While Rohan’s dad succumbs to the will of the demon, Josh struggles to navigate a side of his partner he’s never seen before. He sends their mutual friend Sara (Vivian Bang) a string of desperate texts that prompt her to join the family upstate. The Parenting deals in the kind of horror that will make you chuckle more than scream. The lore behind the hauntings is thin and not all that satisfactory if you apply any analytical pressure. The jump scares and other usual genre tricks are sparse, and Johnson isn’t really interested in gore. Any bloodshed is almost always strictly in service of a joke. Whether or not you go along with it will depend on your mileage for quick laughs over enduring terror.