Home Movie

No, this isn’t another work in the long line of Friedberg & Seltzer’s “Movies”, nor is it a home-made porn of some young untalented pop-singer slut. It’s actually a shaky-cam film made last year, which was, as I have previously stated, quite a year for this kind of cinema.

The Poe family moved to a country house. David Poe is a pastor, and Claire Poe is his wife, a psychiatrist. And they have two lovely children – Jack and Emily. You’d say they’re absolutely normal children, playful and cute… except they aren’t.

The film is presented as a series of video clips recorded on the family camera by David, Claire and later Emily and Jack. You could say this is the first “normal” shaky cam film I’ve seen, by which I mean there are no monsters and/or zombies of any kind. Nevertheless, “Home Movie” is a horror, written and directed by Christopher Denham. And the horror part are the kids.

Unlike Romero’s “Diary of the Dead”, who had a soundtrack under the pretest that one of the protagonists actually edited the recorded video and added it to create atmosphere, “Home Movie” features no music, except the few tunes playing on TV or radio. There is a child’s lullaby type theme in the end credits.

The biggest strength and at the same time the biggest weakness of “Home Movie” is its realism, i.e. absence of the supernatural. When you have zombies you can always put lots of gore and scares, because… well, zombies are scarier than little kids. Then again, little kids are considered fun, cute, cheerful, etc. and having them be the exact opposite can actually be more scary than brain eating undead who are expected to behave that way. Can be and is are not the same, though. I found the absence of real sudden scares and gore a flaw. I admit that scary films can be made without these elements (like “The Others”, for example), but you have to have some sort of paranormal phenomena (ghosts, demons). Complete reality (no paranormal) and absence of bloody scenes just don’t have enough effect on me in a horror film.

Nevertheless, “Home Movie” is an unusual and quality film and worth a watch.

Rating: 7/10

- review by Ventilation Shaft