MOM AND DAD

your kids ever enraged you so much you could almost kill them? That’s the setup for the Nicolas Cage comedy-horror flick “Mom and Dad,” in which all the world’s parents mysteriously develop an insatiable urge to off their offspring.

But this lousy movie doesn’t land its punchline.

“Mom and Dad” aspires to be a scary suburban satire like “Get Out.” But watching adults murder, or attempt to murder, toddlers, teens and even a newborn baby just isn’t funny. At times, it’s downright sickening. The violence isn’t egregiously gruesome or gratuitous, but the circumstances are upsetting enough to make you look away often — or just get up and leave.

Cage, playing a sad dad, does fine work here regardless. Like his character in “Moonstruck,” the man develops an unshakable infatuation. In 1987, his obsession was marrying Cher; now, it’s suffocating his children with gasoline. Cage provides one of the few chuckle-worthy moments, however, when he takes a sledgehammer to a slate pool table while singing “The Hokey Pokey.”

As his wife, Selma Blair is similarly strong. She’s the embodiment of mommy malaise, and makes Joan Crawford look like Betty Crocker.

But a couple of great performances and well-paced direction from writer Brian Taylor is worthless when seeing helpless kids in physical and emotional trauma has you longing for the exit.

Running time: 83 minutes. Rated R (horror violence, language, nudity, drug use). Now playing.