Home (2016) Reviews

• Home: A swing and a miss

  Platypuschow2018-09-28

  Yesterday a Christian followed me to my Facebook page to let me know that I'd upset him by being critical of the church in one of my reviews. If you're reading this, best stop now. Home is a horror starring Heather "Nightmare on Elm Street" Lagenkamp and mid 90's pop star Samantha Mumba. If you choose to watch the movie for them however then don't as they are not the stars here and are not present for the majority of the film. If you choose to watch the film because of the undead girl on the cover then again don't bother, that is on screen for literally about 1 second of the 90 minute duration. It tells the story of a married lesbian couple and their daughters who move into a new reportedly haunted house. When they go away leaving the older daughter to babysit the younger things go terribly wrong. Truth is the film got my interest early on, I like Lagenkamp and the movie was setting up be something interesting. Alas the film has a strong opening, a boring middle and a baffling weak finale. The featured review at time of writing this refers to the film as propaganda. This term gets thrown around a lot on IMDB, generally when a movie involves themes the person doesn't like. Here the person claims that it is anti-gay and anti-secular and I can confidently say it really really isn't. How the person reached this conclusion I cannot get my head around, clearly he looked for something that just wasn't there. Home could have been great but weak writing, lack of originality, a boring middle and terrible cgi at the end damaged it beyond repair. The Good: Heather Lagenkamp The Bad: Bad cgi Dishonest cover Head scratching finale Things I Learnt From This Movie: No sex before marriage doesn't apply if you're horny It's 2018 and filmmakers still don't think the cross falling off the wall thing is a tad old When frisky guys often play with dolls

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• Don't Be Fooled By Propaganda!

  Zebb672016-03-19

  This is one of the director's trademark, fundamentalist propaganda films pretending to be a horror film (though there isn't much in the way of horror, unless you count the horror of losing your money on this junk and realizing you've been duped). Filled with anti-gay and anti-secular propaganda -- anti-anything the director disagrees with, in other words. If a fundamentalist filmmaker is going to preach at you, they should at least have the honesty to tell you that first. This reminds me of that film The Life Zone, which was sold as a horror film but turned out to be an anti-abortion statement where the one woman who has an abortion ends up being tortured in hell. Fortunately, Stephen Colbert caught wind of that fraud and was able to warn audiences in time. Hopefully, I've warned a few people.

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• The movie missed the clever bus

  hwinstead2016-03-24

  This movie plays out like a Lifetime Original movie. There may be spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk. I found the character of Carrie to be particularly difficult to like, and her particular brand of fundamentalism doesn't even come across as fundamentalist. This could have been a fantastic story of a girl coming to grips with her new family and shaking the oppression that comes from being raised in a Christian fundamentalist environment. What I see of Carrie is her getting mildly uncomfortable when people don't pray, a desire to go to morning mass, and a tendency to say the Hail Mary prayer like it has an expiration date. They don't spend time building out the relationships between any of the characters. The youngest daughter just comes across as your standard creepy movie kid, Samantha is stand-offish, and Heather is weirdly disinterested and awkward. It's hard to believe that either of the adult women know how to be parents, much less a same-sex couple who has to fight twice as hard to be seen as legitimately acceptable. Instead of getting great social commentary and tense moments, I got half-hearted jump scares and sloppy characterization. If you have low production values, don't rely on devices that showcase how much of a budget you don't have. The ending? Predictable and underwhelming. This could have been so fantastic, but a nice concept doesn't make for a good movie. It would have been a better miniseries. It's worth a watch, but I wouldn't pay more than a dollar to see it.

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• Really wasn't expecting anything. *Spoiler Alert*

  lupchonglips2016-03-05

  So right off the bat, I was expecting a crazy horror movie from the cover & starring Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street) one of my favorite actress from the horror genre. I was totally wrong. The movie was a slow burn. I hate slow movies! Hate hate hate them! But for some weird reason, I was OK with this one. The characters were interesting & all a little weird in their own way. It totally ramps up after the first 30 mins. Aaron, who's my favorite character in the movie is so funny and his facial reactions had me rolling. That Barbie scene was so hilarious! And there's a great 6th Sense twist at the end. Totally had me thinking "WTF?!" And then "Ahhhh... No Feakin way!" Not the movie I expected to watch at the beginning but totally worth it at the end.

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• Nifty little horror

  gerbildad2018-08-12

  It's no Insidious or The Conjuring, but this movie delivers! It starts off slow, and at first it's not clear where the movie is heading. Is it a ghost story? A possession story? Is there social commentary, and if so, is it something I'd like or not like? After the first half hour or so, amidst an atmosphere of gathering dread, things get rolling and the characters seem to be moving forward in adjusting to a difficult situation not of their choosing. Then, the story takes an abrupt turn this reviewer never saw coming! The acting is generally good, as you might expect with veteran scream queen Heather Langenkamp on board. The lead, Kerry Knuppe, is a joy to watch. (Aaron the boyfriend, however, is somewhat underwhelming.) Not showing Christianity in a bad light may not be everyone's cup of tea--which might explain why this movie currently has such a bad rating. If this is a requirement, don't bother. If it's not a problem, though, Home is definitely worth a look.

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