Home Movie

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......

This is a really disturbing movie. The two children who are at the center of the story are some first grade psychos. I love the story that the mom and dad cannot accept the nature of their kids all the way to the end of the movie.

All performances are top notch and the actors really sell the story. The gore is understated but the chills are great. This is a really good one.

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.

The Poes seem the picture perfect American family.

Dad David, (Adrian Pasdar) is a Lutheran minister and devoted husband to Doctor/Mom Clare (Cady McLain). They have two 10 year old children Jack and Emily (real life siblings Austin & Amber Joy Williams), and life is good. Events such as Halloween, New Year's eve and Easter are celebrated family affairs, captured for posterity on home video. Then things start getting kinda weird. Jack and Emily are starting to act rather oddly. Not quite their usual selves. Then weird stuff starts to happen. Clare is concerned and wonders whether their children need medical treatment. David isn't so sure, and wonders if there's something evil at play in their home. Especially when the kids complain about the man in their closet. Or are the kids lying? And it's all captured via camcorder as events then take a turn for the darker side still...

I'm not going to give a review of plot developments or give any spoilers regarding this film. What I will say is that Home Movie is a pleasantly surprising little pov low budget indy horror that while having a rather slow start, then takes a turn down a dark avenue and becomes a pretty creepy and disconcerting little film indeed.

My advice is not to read of any reviews regarding the actual plot and watch it blind, and buy into the captured on camcorder premise at face value.

Then turn out the lights, have patience with a rather plodding build up-it's a home movie after all, the essence of banality- and prepare to be creeped out.

For a POV horror it thankfully doesn't go nuts with the shaky cam, with much of the film comprising of steady shots, and for a low fi film, manages to get under your skin in parts.

Overall, a solid and effective little horror film, that's worth a look. At 77 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome either.

There tends to be opinions on online forums that lament American horror. My answer to that is take a look through their indy scene. There's quite a few little gems to find, and Home Movie is one of them. 7/10, a very pleasant little surprise.