Review: Home Movie

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

PLOT:
The Poes are your typical suburban family. Dad- David (Adrian Pasdar) is a Lutheran minister, while Mom- Claire (Cady McClain) is a child psychologist. Everything seems perfect- until their children, twins Jack & Emily (played by real life siblings- Austin & Amber Williams) start acting strangely. They become withdrawn, and uncommunicative, and eventually start acting cruelly towards the household pets. Things quickly go from bad to worse- and the Poe’s are forced to confront the fact that something is seriously wrong with their children.

REVIEW: Wow- HOME MOVIE completely caught me off guard. Walking into the film- I assumed it would just be another BLAIR WITCH knockoff, with nothing new to add. Luckily- I was wrong. HOME MOVIE is probably the most frightening film I’ve seen this year at the FANTASIA festival. While it many not be the roller-coaster ride that {REC} was- in my opinion HOME MOVIE is the scarier film- because it hits so close to home.

Imagine you had yourself a couple kids with your hot wife. Everything is going great- your marriage is strong, you’ve both got jobs you love, and the kids appear to be perfect- if a tad quiet. The suddenly- they’re crucifying the cat, and decapitating the family dog. What do you do?

The performances in this film are really good- with Adrian Pasdar from HEROES (and SOLARBABIES!!!!) leading the cast with a powerful performance as the dad. At one point in the film it looked like the filmmakers were going to turn him into the source of all the family problems- but luckily he’s treated sympathetically throughout. Cady McClain also does good work as the mother- and her role is particularly fascinating, as she’s a child psychologist. At one point she tries to treat her children the same way she would treat a patient- which is probably a tad unethical from her perspective- but is an appropriately desperate answer considering her position.

As god as Pasdar & McClain are- for me the real stand outs are Austin & Amber Williams- who I must say are some really creepy kids. Their performances are chilling, and far beyond what we’d usually get from a child actor.

The only thing I didn’t really like about the film was the fact that it’s yet another “you are there” found footage film a la CLOVERFIELD. This approach is getting old fast, but even director Christopher Denham admits that the technique was simply a means to an end. The budget was minuscule and it wouldn’t have been made if they couldn’t use this ultra cheap technique.

Overall- HOME MOVIE was a real find- and it was nice to see a horror film at the fest that didn’t rely on blood & guts to scare the audience.