Home Sick

I haven't seen it in a while. Let me think if I can cook up some words for it. I know that I am going to review it once Synapse releases it. I loved Bill Mosely's performance. Its a bizarre and gory acid trip. The blood is thick and its too weird to be predictable. Its not by any means conventional but thats what kept my mind on the movie after I watched it. There's stuff for fans of brainless splatter entertainment and a wacky/ artsy vibe that should appeal to art-house fans that can accept some thing low brow. It's a psychedelic slasher thats more original than typical but impossible to describe. The ending is wacky!

Synapse should be putting this out on DVD sometime this year!

An enigmatic and seemingly psychotic stranger (Bill Moseley) crashes a home-coming get together among some friends in Alabama. Brandishing a suitcase full of razorblades, he demands that everyone at the party give him the name of someone that they truly despise, which they very reluctantly do, but when they people named begin to die the friends become fearful for their own lives because one of them made a flippant comment at the party. Now they have to come up with a plan to survive, with the help of a chili-loving redneck gun enthusiast (Tom Towles).

Aside from Moseley and Towles, the acting from most of the others is pretty dire (Especially Matt Lero as Timmy, who seems content to channel Eric Freeman's 'acting chops' as Ricky from Silent Night Deadly Night 2). However this is easily overlooked as the movie is more or less just so much gory, weird fun and left me impressed.

Eye Candy: XZanthia and an extra get topless and make out; Tiffany Shepis also loses her shirt

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commentary with Director Adam Wingard and writer/ producer E. L. Katz; deleted opening sequence; Bill Mosley interview segment; 'In a room where darkness counts' featurette; and 3 short films ("the Girlfriend", "1,000 year sleep" & "Laura Panic")

I recently caught Home Sick on a whim at the Sidewalk Film Festival. I expected an average, post-90's low budget horror film. What I saw was a well-polished, deeply disjointing, gore-fest. Seemingly taking cues from horror masters Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento, and Lucio Fulci, Home Sick pays genuine respect to the slowly-rotting slasher genre, while adding a breath of fresh air to it as well.

Set somewhere in Alabama, Claire (Lindley Evans) comes home from California to visit her mysterious past. When visiting her friends, no one seems welcoming. This tension becomes more agitated when she and her acquaintances are confronted by Bill Moseley's (!) character, a big-grinning, blue-suited stranger who happens to carry a suitcase full of razor blades. After performing a bizarre blood-letting ritual based on the kids' hatred for others, he calmly exits. Panic, murder, hysteria, sex, drugs, guns, and chili dinners ensue.

The level of gross in this movie far exceeds anything that's come out in the mainstream since the days of Romero. Instances of broken bones, ripped-off flesh, disembowelment, and knives in the head plague this film. It's not just the gore that makes it special, but also the characters' involvement with death. This is best conveyed in a scene with a coked-out Candice (Tiffany Shepis) and her recently butchered mother. This scene is worth a review in itself.

Besides the first class gore effects, the characters add a certain dynamic to the film. Whereas most teen / young adult horror films revolve around a cast that is pulled from stereotypical high-schoolers (The Jock, The Geek, The Face, etc.), Home Sick incorporates kids that already seem pretty crazy. For fun, they sit around drinking beer and watching gory films like Evil Dead Trap 2. They look pale and have dark circles around their eyes-even the redneck kids. They work at places like the bowling alley, the funeral home, and the school cafeteria. When it hits the fan, these characters seem like they've been preparing for it all their lives. For example, a creepy guy approaches Candice and shows her a Polaroid of a curb-jaw victim he discovered. Her response is a brilliantly sarcastic `Oooh, gross.'

Due to the intense violence, there's absolutely no way this film could be showed at the local Cineplex, unless it's linked to some sort of festival. I can only hope that this comes out on video as it is a testament to real independent filmmaking.

HOME SICK is about a party where this weird man in a blue suit shows up(walking in an extremely creepy way in which he seems to be on a skateboard or some type of cart) with a suitcase filled with thousands of razor blades. He asks the people at the party who each of them hate, and for every answer he slices his wrist with a different razor blade. After he has finished asking everyone, he stands up sings a song and then leaves. Soon after he leaves, everyone who was named begins dying in very bizarre and horrific ways. The characters quickly come to the rather unbelievable conclusion that is is all because of the man in the blue suit, and since one of the people at the party listed off everyone that was in the house, the fates of all the characters are at stake. This may sound like a weird premise for a horror film, but trust me. It works.

What I loved most about this film is that it didn't feel like a modern horror film. This film is probably about as close as a modern day horror film can ever come to replicating the style, atmosphere, music, characters, and gore of a 70s horror film. It comes off so impressively and so beautifully that you feel nostalgic just watching it. I wish that more horror films these days could be more like HOME SICK. The opening scene in the bathroom is a perfect example of a scene right out of something like I DRINK YOUR BLOOD or a Dario Argento film. It comes off so effectively and with such imagination. There's no CGI gore. It's all practical visual effects. They work absolutely perfect.

The performances come off good in a realistic way. The characters in this film are all completely psychotic and insane and their psychosis comes off all too real at times, particularly toward the end when certain events are depicted in such a gritty and guerrilla-style way about them. The music in this is absolutely perfect in setting a dark tone, completely with a sense of eerie detachment and weirdness that feels entirely appropriate. Again, it's just like something Tobe Hooper would have done. The intense atmosphere just fits perfect with the film's style.

In terms of complaints I had for the film, I did find the middle of the film to be a bit slow and moody in a way that came off slightly awkward. I liked it, but I can imagine many horror fans feeling a little bored. I also didn't really particularly like any of the characters, but considering how they are all insane I suppose that was the point. I don't know, it's difficult to really complain about this film since everything is done so deliberately. If you love the bizarre and cheap horror films of the early 70s like the ones I mentioned above, I am really confident that you will love this film. It's a must-see for horror fans for sure. Check it out.

I was extremely surprised to see how well done Home Sick was. Not only as a horror film, but in its presentation and its development as any film. Adam Wingard is a young director and you can tell a huge horror and film fan. This film will give you an idea of how great a fairly low budget film can be. I went in thinking it would be more of a thriller. I was thrilled to find out it was a true slasher gore fest. I was laughing uncontrollably. The movie was packed with great special effects and once the story develops, it is a real fun and entertaining film. The cinematography and sound effects were also really impressive. I can't wait to see what this team of filmmakers will come up with next. I really believe Home Sick is a truly entertaining and well done horror film.