Mum & Dad

Lena Malley begins a shift as a cleaner at Heathrow Airport. Birdie helps her with tasks and they chat during the work. Lena reveals she lives alone and has little contact with her family, hinting at a troubled past.

During a break at the airport, Birdie introduces Lena to her adopted brother Elbie, who also works there and is mute. Lena learns that Elbie is part of Birdie's world and that family ties are complicated. This encounter foreshadows the later captivity she will endure.

Missing her bus, Lena agrees to walk with Birdie to her house. Once there, she is knocked out and injected with a sedative. She wakes up dressed as a child, restrained and surrounded by Mum and Dad who begin to set their disturbing rules.

Mum explains that Lena will be part of their family if she behaves, and Dad reinforces that she must follow their rules. Lena cannot speak due to the injections and is subjected to further humiliation and marking. The atmosphere turns from strange to terrifying as the family asserts control.

At breakfast the family watches pornography, treating Lena as an object. Lena attempts to escape, but Dad grabs her and Elbie drags her back to the table. The routine reveals a home that is more prison than refuge.

Over the following days Lena is humiliated for no reason and discovers a mobile phone, which she hides. She is quickly caught and subjected to heavier sedation as punishment for any sign of resistance. The captivity tightens its grip.

Lena notices a man outside the house and Dad catches sight of him. He drags Lena into a torture room, stuffs her in a suitcase, and orders Elbie to strike the case with a hammer. The house becomes a chamber of terror.

The man outside is suffocated by Mum and Birdie with bubble wrap, then dismembered in the house. Lena is forced to witness as they kiss the severed head and cook his flesh into sausages. The brutality leaves Lena more isolated and terrified.

That night Lena manages to break free from her restraints and finds an attic staircase. She encounters a mentally ill girl and a restrained man, and she takes a weapon as she searches for escape routes.

On Christmas morning, Birdie brings Lena downstairs and Dad explains the dark past of the mentally ill daughter. The family exchanges grotesque Christmas presents, underscoring the perverse atmosphere of the house.

Dad, dressed as 'Mum', tries to sexually assault Lena. Unbeknownst to him, Elbie has freed Lena's handcuffs, allowing her to stab him with a weapon she found in the attic. The violence becomes the turning point toward Lena's bid for freedom.

Lena stabs Dad and clashes with Mum and Birdie, slamming one into a wall and stabbing as she fights her way out. She breaks for the back door and heads toward the field, pursued by the exhausted family.

After Lena's breakout, Elbie frees the 'spastic' girl from her restraints and then strangles her, seemingly ending that part of the family's brutality. He then walks away from the house, leaving Lena to contend with the consequences of her escape.

Lena staggers into a field, bleeding and exhausted, and screams as planes take off overhead. The film closes on her solitary cry, echoing the cruel escape she has just endured.