Home Movie

Home Movie (2008)
“I dare you to watch until our movie is done”

Let’s talk about that tagline a little bit. THAT tagline implies that something super extra gruesome is going to happen at the end – does it not? And yet, this is not the case.

This movie starts out very, very, very slow, which is not a good sign for something that’s only 76 minutes total. Adrian Pasdar plays a minister named David (which is something you don’t realize until he puts his collar on, what with all the drinking and sexy talk), and his wife Clare is a child psychiatrist. David is apparently obsessed with filming every single thing they do on their home video camera…which is how we notice before the parents do that there is something not quite right with their kids, twins Jack & Emily.

Amidst various holiday celebrations, the camera zooms in to capture all manner of animal torture: frogs, squirrels, etc. –eventually leading up to the family cat getting crucified by the kiddos on Christmas Day. Which I guess means Clare isn’t exactly the expert she thinks she is, huh?

There are problems galore with this film – firstly; there’s nothing interesting about having to watch each parent treat the video camera like an MTV confession booth, or as a “record” of what’s happening for their professional lives. There’s just too much talk and not enough mayhem to make this a worthwhile movie. Sure, the kids are evil, but you don’t end up feeling sorry for David & Clare at all…and the small amount of gore in this can’t fix what’s missing from the script. All I could think of during the “climatic” ending was: thankgod, it’s over.

My recommendation: skip it.