Home Movie

Just got back from seeing the world premiere of this brilliant pic at Fantasia festival. I wasn't expecting to see something of this caliber! It took all of three minutes for me to buy this film's central conceit hook line and sinker. The premise is relatively straightforward. The Poe's are young parents who like to film everything. Their children are strangely cold and possibly psychotic. Shot entirely from a home video camera (albeit they must own a very nice professional HD cam) the Poe's document their daily lives as their children begin to exhibit increasingly odd and cruel behavior.

While this film is technically low budget, the acting and production values are top notch. The children in particular (the actors themselves are brother and sister) are chilling from start to finish. And what a finish! Brilliant stuff! I hope this pic takes the festival. Best film I've seen so far this year! Excellent use of the hand-held camera trope to pull the audience into the daily lives of the Poe's and to ramp up the tension to an almost unbearable level. People will be putting their kids up for adoption in droves after this.

After the film, the producer was on hand to answer questions. They're still looking for a distributor and while I'm sure they'll have no problem once the early reviews get out, if you have a chance to see this at a festival don't pass it up! It might be awhile before it hits wide release, to say nothing of DVD.

Sometimes I think i'll never see anything fresh and new because it's all been done before, and then I watched this. I was flipping through some on demand channels and watched the preview, had to order it. After the movie was done, I found myself thinking about it for days and wanting to see it again so I could look for clues that I might have missed, that's the sign of a good movie in my opinion. I find it hard to believe so few people have seen this little gem, as I had a hard time even finding reviews for it. Oh.. and that guy from Hero's, Adrian Pasdar, fantastic in this! I never cared for the guy when watching Hero's but in this movie he showed he really has some acting skills, I lost myself in his acting he was THAT good.

Not a lot to be said about this one unfortunately. I saw some people recommending it on a Found Footage page I follow. It was short so I decided to give it a chance. I could never really get into it though. I think Found Footage works better with the supernatural (about the only time I'll ever say anything positive about supernatural films). There was nothing here that the Found Footage concept added to, and in reality it probably took a lot away from the film. All it probably achieved was keeping the film ultra-cheap for the filmmakers.

It's not all bad here. The final sequence was reasonably well done and added a point or two to the film. Also there were one or two sequences earlier in the film that at least had me interested in what would happen next. I would've liked to see the film get a lot darker though. Found footage films have a tendency to get really dark and leave the viewer with a hopeless feeling. I never quite felt that way here. It's far from terrible, but go in with low expectations would be my advice. 5/10.

Some body needs a vicious spanking. This disturbing tale of a family gone horribly south laments that the end is not going to be pleasant, and it certainly does not disappoint. To eschew those moments of stupidity, where the characters behave with retarded capacity, is one necessity of the viewer, for these parents absolutely blow it at times. The acting was top rate for such an endeavor, with exceptional performances by the children, creepy little things that they were. Adrian Pasdar was a sheer treat to watch- what a ham. There are some fun connections between the lessons of the father and how the children take note and put words into discommoding action, all to wicked effect. For those not charmed by home movie style flicks, best to stay away. As well, this was a chilling affair turned dark as black towards its end- stay away happy happy joy joy fans. As to the rest, this short little psycho-thriller might just be reason enough to get those tubes tied. Mercie beaucoup.

Genruk

Evil Eye Reviews

As I am reviewing new films for IMDb, I like to occasionally go back down memory lane and review a film I saw in years past. Since last night I watched Apartment 143 another film of this sub genre ilk, I suddenly thought of the glory days of these particular films and Viola!!! Home Movie snuck into my mind. How can you go wrong here.....parents, one a reverend and the other a psychologist will 2 kids that lets just say are off the beaten path lurking down a 2 rut road. In other words very troubled and trouble is what they bring to the table in this moody, dark, creepy, foreboding and deeply insidious indie gem. I won't give anything away but I will say this, I had trouble walking by a park playground for months and I have seen almost every horror film out there. Pregnant females stay far away and males about to be a father watch and be warned. Both children deserve Oscar nominations for their haunting performances......