Three words: irrevocable psychological damage.
It's truly baffling to see that there is only one review of this film on IMDB, and even more baffling to see that it is positive. This horrendous, deeply disturbing work of supposed "child entertainment" is just plain damaging, both emotionally and psychologically. It is, simply put, the stuff of nightmares.
I watched Hoomania on vhs several times as a kid. No doubt my parents considered it to be a wholesome, moralistic alternative to other children's media of the late 90s. They, fully grown adults, were immune to the deleterious effects of this film on young, developing minds. I don't remember anything about the morals. I don't remember anything the protagonist learned. Hoomania is supposedly based on the biblical book of Proverbs, but I don't remember learning anything about Proverbs from this movie. All I remember is the horror. The sheer, teeth-rattling terror and spine-chilling dread that filled my being as I watched it through slitted fingers.
This film features a story about a child who is sucked into the world of a board game against his will (kind of an inverse of Jumanji or Zathura), a concept I found deeply frightening as a small child. While in the game world, his soul is trapped in a nightmarish world of stilted, uncanny claymation and he must navigate through a series of inhuman horrors taken from the deepest pits of imagination that tear at the boundaries of sanity. Let's be clear here- Kris is in mortal peril, and has no idea if death in the boardgame is equivalent to death in real life. He has no means of escape except to face the vagarious whims of whomever or whatever is controlling Hoomania.
As a child I had nightmares about being trapped in a claymation body, trying in vain to run away from some of the more monstrous forms of the denizens of Hoomania. Needless to say I was permanently soured on Claymation, which to this day still fills me with repulsion and dread.
To write this review, I attempted to subject myself to this dark apparition again to make sure I was remembering correctly. (I hesitate to mention that it is available in its entirety online). I was unable to bring myself to watch it. I felt an urge deep in my stomach which I couldn't control- an urge to escape, to flee. Like a caged animal too many times stung by a cruel keeper's whip I recoiled in some kind of primitive, prehistoric-cave-man response. I, a grown man, physically couldn't bring myself to sit through a 37 minute children's film from 1985. That, dear reader, is the damage that Hoomania wreaks on the human psyche.
I'm grateful that it wasn't overly popular. Not that many kids saw it, but the truth must be told. I still feel justice must be done, if nowhere else in this cruel world, then in the review section of IMDB.
