It’s human nature — since time immemorial we’ve attributed human characteristics to everything around us. From the Freudian (so we don’t feel so alone in the universe) to the commercial (Pixar’s box office hauls), the reasons why pop culture is full of human-like intelligence are endless.

So the pair take flight to find a hometown that feels right, calling on friends and relatives around North America in a series of vignettes that teach them how not to be good parents. Between the goofy, talky soccer mum (Janney) to the extreme Aquarian hippie (Gyllenhaal), the two end up more confused than they started.

First time writer/director Bryan Bertino goes for nerve sawing tension rather than gore, and thoroughly achieves it through inventive camera angles and an unsettling score and sound effects. Unfortunately logic, natural behaviour and consistency are all sacrificed on the altar to achieve such a living, breathing sense of dread, and cliché often curbs an otherwise realistic depiction of events.