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......

After I watched this, my sleep was disturbed for several nights running. Much more interesting than any teen slasher pic you've seen, this descent into every parent's nightmare has a solid script, is full of top-notch acting from all the players, and the kind of psychological tension that makes you hold your breath. Add a big twist at the end and you've got an evening at the movies that you'll be talking about with your date for some time to come. I'd also like to say that the young Williams children, who play the roles of "Emily" and "Jack" are particularly effective.

This show is slated for airing on IFC soon, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

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.

I found the film's clever concept and almost Spartan production a welcomed change to overwrought, special effects-driven horror flicks. This film's austerity nicely compliments its premise—namely, that these are a series of video clips that chronicle a family's shocking collapse under the weight of severe metal illness. I suspect anyone who has worked with families will appreciate the role denial plays in perpetuating and even facilitating dysfunctional behavior—even more so when it involves metal illness.

Contrary to the claim in an accompanying review, I find the disturbing behavior well (even clinically) explained and revealed at a pace that keeps the movie engrossing but plausible. I suspect parents who enjoy the reality/horror genre will find this movie especially engaging.

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.