Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives

Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. The start was not promising. The flickering light effects and the ghostly apparitions were far from original, looking like downtrodden cliches. Worse, in the first half one cannot help wondering whether these phenomena would ever lead to something substantial and original. And why bring in a heavily pregnant woman as main protagonist, knowing that every man will dismiss her sightings, saying these are due to hormones and hence not to be taken seriously.

On the other hand, the sound effects made serious attempts several times to emphasize that something very creepy was going on, or was about to happen very soon. Most of the times I missed the reason why, maybe being trained too much to ignore flickering lights and eerie sounds, deeming it weak techniques of the horror genre. In retrospect, I should have trusted the light and sound effects, and have allowed me to move along with the atmosphere that was building up.

Trust me, it all comes together in due course. Try to guess, if you want, who can really be trusted: the neighbor, or Maria's friend, or her father-in-law, or even her husband?? We won't know until the very end. Is there even a conspiracy going on, involving some or maybe all of them?? Demons out of the past find means to reach out and get their accomplices in the world of today.

All in all, the story could have started stronger, if only to avert my initial impression that flickering lights and sudden ghostly appearances were to become the main course. What Maria discovers in the cellar did not enough to steer me in the direction that she had just found something very significant there. Ultimately, her findings became the pillar of the unexpected plot twists ahead, with several even so unexpected turns of events. And that is where this movie is all about. Family history as of centuries ago reaches out into the current time, wanting its revenge. I scored 5/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue.

I was skeptical at first as I am not the biggest fan of one shot movies. But this feels different. Such a thrill. I was constantly at the edge of my seat for the duration of the movie, at least the last 40 Minutes. Farooq's acting is out of this world, what an achievement.

I was especially fond of the end. The pace is restless, the twists unexpected. I have never seen David Kross in a part like this, he is very convincing. Contrary to my initial belief Germans can do horror. I totally understand now why the film was celebrated at Fright Fest in London this year. I can imagine it must play even better in front of an audience in a theatre.

This was a sneak peak film in my local cinema I watched and it left a negative emotional impact. During the film 6 people left the cinema hall from this movie.

My impression of this film was negative. The movie did not have a clear story and it was illogical to me. The visual storytelling is confusing throughout the movie and makes no sense to me.

Sound design was an exception, It incorporated Hans Zimmer ticking clock and horror sound effects like Shepard tone. This made me remind me a bit of Dunkirk (2017). Hence, sound design and music was the good and strongest part of the movie.

In terms of tension - there was tension. It created mystery and fear from the unknown and confused the viewer a lot.

Overall, this movie was quite disappointing and did not live up to my expectations. Yet, I do believe that one-shot movies are very hard to make but in terms of the emotional impact and storytelling, I was disappointed.

The first 20-30 minutes have their difficulties, but once the different characters enter the stage, the pacing gets better and better. It's a classic story, like those short horror stories you read at night as a teenager. But the location has been used very cleverly, sound and visuals are absolutely fine and doing this as a oner (one-shot) was a good and well executed decision. Especially the nightmarish vision has been edited really really good. Nilam Farooq is a believeable scream queen, Justus v Dohnanyi again shows he can play villains and the rest of the cast does a fine job. Nice little film from Germany.

Or rather one shot - no pun intended. And also they did it three times! But looks like the third one was the best. If you like movies to have challenges .. well this has quite enough. Not sure if that is enticing for you or more like ... nope I don't want to watch it. I know I have a problem with found footage movies .. so there is that.

The movies that do one take (though technology has moved so far, you couldn't tell if it actually was one take, director insists it was and I believe him of course) ... well it is quite the harrowing thing to do. But I reckon you can also be free of any editing issue ... you just have everything right there ... well done and a really good main actress ... the movie stand and falls with her ... luckily it does stand! Even if there are some hiccups along the way ...