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Meet The Parents (2000)

Featured In

DZ-122: Escalating Antagonism Across Genres

How can you apply horror ideas to action and comedy?

AI✦Examines how Meet The Parents layers multiple aligned sources of antagonism--rather than contrasting ones--to create escalating comic pressure, with each antagonistic force working toward the same humiliation of the protagonist.✦

⏱ 1h 44m

1 OCT 2025

Character · Structure · Genre

Listen to learn how thinking of your hero as the horror (for your villains) makes your script dynamic.

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In this episode Chas, Stu and guest Kim Ho continue their exploration into the power(s) of antagonism and how focusing on them can develop story… →

Films: Rebel Ridge (2024) , Meet The Parents (2000)

Character: Character Motivation , Moral Complexity , Character Agency , Antiheroes , Character Depth , Internal Journey , Character Flaw

Structure: Antagonism , TOMBS Cycle , Escalation , Midpoint , Narrative Velocity

Genre: Genre Translation , Genre Conventions

"The truth really pierces through because he’s been lying the whole movie and... it’s actually like the most intimate the the two men have been, emotionally and physically."

— kim-ho | DZ-122: Escalating Antagonism Across Genres

Referenced In

DZ-121

Escalating Antagonism in SINNERS

⏱ 1h 24m

AUG 2025