Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Heading Home (2007)

Heading Home may only be 10 minutes long, but its quirky, creepy and fun re-telling of Ramsey Campbell’s classic short story makes it a very worthwhile watch.

Marie (Jenny Mundy-Castle) suspects her husband (Ean Sheehy) is up to something strange in his laboratory. He never wants to be disturbed, keeps the doors locked tight and the butcher (Chuck Bunting) always has bizarre deliveries for him. One day, curiosity gets the best of Marie and when she finds the door unlocked, she decides to snoop. She is horrified to find that her husband is performing some truly grotesque and immoral experiments. She confides in the butcher, who also believes something is amiss. The butcher soon takes his revenge, but not before the doctor perfects one of his experiments and tries it on himself…

Jane Rose has done an excellent job adopting Campbell’s short story. I’m sure many of you have read Campbell’s short story at some point – it is usually required material in elementary school. Rose was inspired (and creeped out) by the story when she herself read it in elementary school and has now turned it into a fantastic short film.

Though this is a low-budget film, it still plays very well. It does a good job of staying within its limitations and really working with what it has. The special effects are believable and never look cheap or tacky. The twist at the end and the accompanying special FX were very well done and looked very cool! Severed heads aren’t the easiest things to portray (especially if they are alive and wriggling), but this film, even with its low-budget, pulled the effect off very well.

Rose has created a very tight script that relies heavily on atmosphere, but still manages to be fun. Heading Home reminds me of the old “mad doctor” films that have “Midnight Movie” written all over them. Heading Home is a unique vision of kitschy horror that still sends thrills up your spine that definitely deserves your attention!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...