Review: Home Movie (2008)

The premise of "Home Movie" is an intriguing one, to say the least. It depicts the downfall (and eventual demise) of the Poe family at the hands of their demonic twins, through (faked) home video footage. Think "Must Read After My Death" meets "The Blair Witch Project" with a little bit of "Them" thrown in, and you'd be pretty close to what this movie looks like on paper. Unfortunately, that's nowhere near the end result that's actually presented here on video.

Adrian Pasdar and Cady McClain star as David and Clare Poe, respectively, a middle-class American couple who has just moved to a house in the "middle of nowhere", as Clare puts it, with their twin children, Jack and Emily. It quickly becomes evident that something is not quite right with the twins, what with their propensity to kill family pets, and all. While this could have made for a decent storyline, it quickly loses all forms of plausibility: Even though their parents know they are killing off the household animals (they find the family cat crucified to a wall on Easter Sunday), they are reluctant to do anything so much as have a talk with them, much less punish them in any way, shape, or form. I know if I found out my son or daughter was killing neighborhood animals, some potential red flags would be raised. Especially since they are clearly cold and psychotic, as is evident in the detached, uncaring way they open their presents on Christmas morning. Is it really supposed to come as a shock to the viewer that these kids are out of their minds? Are we really supposed to be shocked or scared by what follows? Even if it's predictable as hell?

The main problem with "Home Movie" is right in its design: It looks nothing at all like a genuine home-made movie. Usually, such videos are grainy, shot on consumer-grade cameras by complete amateurs who are simply looking to record an event rather than getting the best possible shots. Perfect examples of this are "The Blair Witch Project", and the much more recent "Paranormal Activity", two films that did falsified "home movies" right. The video in "Home Movie" looks much too polished, with the title cards and "camcorder menu" sequences looking much too fake. Furthermore, the footage is obviously edited, with sequences overdubbed (by a character who barely even knows how to run the thing), and sequences flashing in and out of other scenes. Things like these can only be done is post-production, and since we are lead to believe this is footage as it was found, it seriously detracts from the overall feel.

Unfortunately, the poor execution of the look and feel of the movie is far from the only gripe. Aside from maybe one or two sequences, it's essentially a collection of clichéd horror movie scares. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the horror genre, as depressing as it may be, will not be shocked by the movie's stale scare tactics, all of which have been attempted in countless other movies. I will give the film some credit for not relying on any jump scares, as it seems focused on trying to build up a creepy atmosphere, but for the most part, it fails rather miserably. In the end "Home Movie" is just another tired retread of countless other horror films. One could argue that, aside from the obvious flaws as an attempted home video, it is competently made, but what's the point of making something in the first place if you have nothing new that you want to say, or if you can't at least make it better than those you are stealing from?

Rating: *1/2 (out of 4)