"Home Sweet Home" follows an escaped mental patient high on PCP who cruises out of Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day after killing a stranger and stealing his car. He ends up somewhere on the outskirts of the city, and stumbles upon a rural ranch home where a group of people have assembled for Thanksgiving. Chaos inevitably ensues.
This film has eluded me over the years, and given the vast amount of criticism it's received, I didn't expect a whole lot. Based on the first scene, things already seem inconceivably bad—the opening has the bulked up Jake Steinfeld approaching some guy who is pulled over under a freeway. The driver insouciantly offers him a beer, and he grabs him by the neck and strangles him to death. That's the kind of film this is. There are one-liners that you have to hear to believe: "I'm gonna kill myself," and "Maybe I can slip some arsenic in his soup... Hi, I'm Gail!" One of the main characters, a teenage boy named Mistake, spends the entirety of the film doing KISS makeup and playing metal riffs on an electric guitar with his portable amplifier.
For all of its "bad movie" pitfalls though, there is something strangely amusing about "Home Sweet Home." While it's by and large absurd, it does manage to sneak in some atmosphere, and there is a desolate, ominous feel to the setting that is unexpectedly eerie. What the film lacks in traditional fall atmosphere, it makes up for in its dark and dreary Topanga Canyon setting. It also, for unknown reasons, shifts from borderline black comedy to serious horror about midway through as the body count starts to kick in, a transition that is as unexpected as it is inexplicable. The last forty minutes of the film are actually respectably suspenseful, and there are some gruesome murder scenes in true eighties fashion.
The acting here is a mixed bag; a lot of the performances are hammy and expose some rather trite dialogue, but there are some decent performances, specifically from Colette Trygg, who plays the unexpected heroine. Jake Steinfeld's performance is over the top and ridiculous, but I suppose fitting for a crazed drug addict. The film also marks Vinessa Shaw's first screen role, playing the lone child at the Thanksgiving-turned-splatterfest (which is actually rather unusual for the period, given the taboo of children being exposed to violence in film).
Overall, "Home Sweet Home" is utterly strange, somewhat terrible, but also substantially enjoyable all in one. The tone of the film is at times tongue-in-cheek, especially in regard to the maniacal yet borderline comic villain, while at other moments it is dark and unforgiving. The film is at odds with itself in a lot of ways, and is surely one of the weirdest early eighties slashers, but I appreciated it for its atmosphere and the unexpectedly engaging final act. "Blood Rage," another rare Thanksgiving-set slasher, was released several years later, and though a more polished film, I slightly prefer the hard-edged grit of "Home Sweet Home." 6/10.
This film has eluded me over the years, and given the vast amount of criticism it's received, I didn't expect a whole lot. Based on the first scene, things already seem inconceivably bad—the opening has the bulked up Jake Steinfeld approaching some guy who is pulled over under a freeway. The driver insouciantly offers him a beer, and he grabs him by the neck and strangles him to death. That's the kind of film this is. There are one-liners that you have to hear to believe: "I'm gonna kill myself," and "Maybe I can slip some arsenic in his soup... Hi, I'm Gail!" One of the main characters, a teenage boy named Mistake, spends the entirety of the film doing KISS makeup and playing metal riffs on an electric guitar with his portable amplifier.
For all of its "bad movie" pitfalls though, there is something strangely amusing about "Home Sweet Home." While it's by and large absurd, it does manage to sneak in some atmosphere, and there is a desolate, ominous feel to the setting that is unexpectedly eerie. What the film lacks in traditional fall atmosphere, it makes up for in its dark and dreary Topanga Canyon setting. It also, for unknown reasons, shifts from borderline black comedy to serious horror about midway through as the body count starts to kick in, a transition that is as unexpected as it is inexplicable. The last forty minutes of the film are actually respectably suspenseful, and there are some gruesome murder scenes in true eighties fashion.
The acting here is a mixed bag; a lot of the performances are hammy and expose some rather trite dialogue, but there are some decent performances, specifically from Colette Trygg, who plays the unexpected heroine. Jake Steinfeld's performance is over the top and ridiculous, but I suppose fitting for a crazed drug addict. The film also marks Vinessa Shaw's first screen role, playing the lone child at the Thanksgiving-turned-splatterfest (which is actually rather unusual for the period, given the taboo of children being exposed to violence in film).
Overall, "Home Sweet Home" is utterly strange, somewhat terrible, but also substantially enjoyable all in one. The tone of the film is at times tongue-in-cheek, especially in regard to the maniacal yet borderline comic villain, while at other moments it is dark and unforgiving. The film is at odds with itself in a lot of ways, and is surely one of the weirdest early eighties slashers, but I appreciated it for its atmosphere and the unexpectedly engaging final act. "Blood Rage," another rare Thanksgiving-set slasher, was released several years later, and though a more polished film, I slightly prefer the hard-edged grit of "Home Sweet Home." 6/10.