Home Sick

Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: August 26, 2008
Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: Lindley Evans, Bill Moseley, Tiffany Shepis, Forrest Pitts, Will Akers, Matt Lero, Brandon Carroll, Tom Towles, Jeff Dylan Graham, L.C. Holt
Year: 2007
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Movie:

More often than not, the low budget independent films that get most of the attention seem to be either slasher films or zombie films and while Home Sick may borrow elements from the slasher genre, it's certainly more than just a carbon copy 'guy with a knife' movie.

The picture begins when a pretty girl named Claire (Lindley Evans) returns to her home state of Alabama to visit her friends. They all get together (in a basement covered in heavy metal posters) and drink some beers but are soon disturbed by a strange party crasher (Bill Moseley) carrying a suitcase full of razorblades. Not sure what to think of the man, the group watches as he forces them to tell him about all that they hate. While they talk, he slits away at his arms with the razorblades from his case. Covered in blood, he leaves, and once he does, things take a very definite turn for the even more bizarre.

Later on, a maniac in a black hood starts killing off the people that Claire and her friends told the 'suitcase man' that they hated. Then it dawns on them - one of the friends, Tim (Matt Lero), told the 'suitcase man' that he hated everyone in the room that night. Does this mean that they'll all fall victim to the killer as well? The only one who might be able to help them is a strange ex-military chili cook (Tom Towles)!

Quirky, twisted, and gory as all Hell, Home Sick is an interesting and gleefully perverse little horror film that takes a refreshingly original approach to its obscure blend of scares and black comedy. The first and most obvious think you'll notice is the gore effects, both in terms of quantity and quality (remember the curb scene in American History X? There's a similar scene here that packs that kind of impact!). Thankfully done without any CGI, the effects make you stand up and take notice during a few key scenes and they really do hammer home how messed up some of what the filmmakers are showing us in this picture.

The film's biggest flaw is the acting. While Bill Moseley is fantastic, Tiffany Shepis is hot if underused, and Tom Towles is solid, the rest of the cast range from uninspired to mediocre. They're not terrible by any stretch but they really don't stand out at all. The direction from Adam Wingard is quite good and despite the fact that more background information on a couple of characters would have been very welcome the script is quite good. The picture is well edited and well put together and has considerably better cinematography than a lot of other low budget pictures and it's obvious that all involved put a lot of effort into the production - thankfully, those efforts show.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Surprisingly enough, the 1.85.1 widescreen presentation on this DVD is not anamorphic. The film was shot on 16mm and so it's got that sort of rough and grimy look that is sometimes inherent in the stock - in this case it works in the picture's favor. As far as the quality itself goes, colors look good as do black levels and skin tones. Detail isn't super strong but it looks alright. There aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts nor edge enhancement.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track on this disc is pretty good. There are one or two scenes where the levels pop up a bit but this is more likely to heighten the scares than anything else. The dialogue stays clean and clear and there aren't any issues with hiss or distortion to complain about.

Synapse have rounded up a considerable amount of supplements for this release (no surprise since they co-produced it) starting with a commentary track courtesy of director Adam Wingard and writer/co-producer E.L. Katz. The two filmmakers talk about how after the film was finished the changed things around a little bit and created a new opening scene, and about changes that were made later on in the process. They talk about casting the film and what it was like working with a couple of the notable actors and they uniformly praise Moseley and Shepis' work on the picture. They discuss how quickly Moseley's scene in particular was written in about fifteen minutes and how he's based on Katz's 'fear of motivational speakers.' There's a bit of dead air here and there but this is a pretty decent discussion and dissection of the film.

From there, check out the trio of original short films made by Wingard and Katz: The Girlfriend (31:46, an interesting and stylish little shocker), 1,000 Year Sleep (6:30, a quick and at times almost surreal dose of horror), and Laura Panic (3:10, a short about a murder in a small town).

Up next is a very unorthodox featurette entitled In A Room Where Darkness Counts (12:30). Here Adam Wingard takes us through the process of making the film but not in the way that you'd expect. This isn't really a collection of talking head interview clips so much as it is a stream of consciousness explanation. It's strange, but effective.

Bill Moseley gets in front of the camera for an interview for The Mr. Suitcase Interview (5:29) where Moseley discusses his character and talks about how he doesn't so much represent a nostalgic older generation who has lost their youth but more so how he looks at the kids without any human emotion or attachment and looks at them as vessels. Moseley lends some interesting insight into his character and how he played them and we also get a chance to see him working on set with the filmmakers and his co-stars.

Rounding out the supplements are a deleted opening sequence that gives us a bit more background information on Claire and her friends (7:42), anamorphic animated menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

Home Sick has got some flaws but on the flip side of that coin, it's interesting enough and original enough that the good out weighs the bad. The DVD isn't reference quality but it's a decent presentation and low budget horror fans ought to give this one a look as it really does stand out from the pack.