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Great Film overall

Absolutely the worst movie.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

My response has a few spoilers so if you've not seen this film, here's a warning before you read on.I quite understand why some viewers did not like Home Movie, however I actually found this film quite disturbing and very intelligently rendered. Of course there will be lots of folks who hate the film because while it is a horror film, it is not scary and refuses to explain itself in broad and excessively obvious ways. It relies more on intimation that explanation. Too many horror films use jumps and starts to compensate for a poorly scripted story and fortunately nowhere in this film is there any such pandering to horror sensationalism and clichés. Instead it relies on a really solid idea - young twin sibling who are being abused off-camera by their father become increasingly sullen and withdrawn as they refuse to participate in their parents' on-camera charade of domestic bliss and pretense of happy families.These kids fit right into the generic "evil child" mold of super-intelligent children who are always one step ahead of adults that refuse to think the worst of their darling cherubs. Yet unlike some evil child films where the kids are just evil because the kids are just evil, Jack and Emily are given a motive for their actions, which is that their upstanding Lutheran pastor father, David, has been abusing them and getting away with it. David is, of course, so hell-bent on hiding his abuse that he tells his kids that its good to have secrets as he plays happy families on camera and constantly tries to get his kids to participate in the contrivance. Meanwhile their psychiatrist mother lives in ignorance and denial of what is really going on and is more concerned about her professional career and treating other child patients than her own children. In order to get close to her own children, she needs to treat them like patients, and then congratulates herself for "curing" them. This is quite a disturbed family and its impressive how skillfully the film achieves this without being blatantly obvious about it.The scene where the children refuse to pray before the thanksgiving meal, with their father wearing his pastor's uniform, demonstrates the anger and resentment the children feel towards him and what kind of monster of a man he really is - ignoring their protestations and cries for help and continuing like nothing is happening. He has a compulsion to record himself being a good dad to somehow leave a record of what a nice guy he is, but as the children continue to misbehave, his (self) deception unravels. The exorcism scene is truly disturbing as he would prefer to blame Satan for his children's behavior than look more closely at himself. In the car when the mother says to the kids that they shouldn't keep secrets, Dad pipes up and says, "Secrets can be good". Warning bells! The scene where the father is preparing his sermon demonstrates how contrived his outward persona is - even the words of his sermon seem contrived and hollow. Everything about this guy is pretense and deceit. It is little wonder that the children attack a child named Christian.The escalating levels of animal torture and mutilation, as they graduate from bugs and goldfish to increasingly larger creatures, of course point to the inevitability of the children eventually attacking their parents - it comes as no surprise, yet the film plays on our knowledge of this, using it to create a sense of dread. This film is not about trying to guess the surprise ending. There are no surprises. But it's not the "what" that makes this film interesting, it's the "why". One rarely finds probing character studies in horror films, but in Home Movie we are given just that.

Horror films are one of my favorite genres, unfortunately it is a rare case to find a decent one. I enjoy realistic and disturbing horror films. Not the ones that try to ride out on big breasted women running from demons that jump out on the screen every 15 minutes. This film is short, and to the point. From the very beginning there is a sense of tension that continuously builds until the brutal ending. I rarely leave a film of this type with a disturbed mind, but this movie certainly did the trick. The acting is perfect from some moderately unknown names. Adrian Pasdar was enjoyable to watch as he played a key role in the tension and the relief occasionally. The hand-held film effect may seem to be overdone, but this film utilizes it differently and even mentions at times how stupid it is to be filming their own horrors. I strongly recommend this film.

The positive reviews for this turd are clearly written by shills. The acting is abominable. The characterizations are incredibly inconsistent and not the least bit real. I laughed out loud when the dad showed up in a priest's collar! WTF?!?! This douchey moron who farts through the whole movie and treats his kids like crap is a man of the cloth?? And I'd love to get an actual count of the number of fart jokes they use. FART JOKES!!! What??!!?! And the mom is DOCTOR mom, child psychiatrist, but she had the most ludicrously f-ed up kids on earth and doesn't do anything about it until they're actually trying to kill HER. And there's NO STORY. It's just random, meaningless clips strung together and then the kids gradually do weirder (albeit a totally contrived type of 'weird') things. But the kids don't go from normal, happy kids to supernatural freaks. They go from weirdos to violent weirdos. It's pitiful. It's like a closet-gay jock with a drinking problem made this movie. And the "found footage" aspect is pointless, because they don't stick to the "rules" of found footage. What a relentless waste of time.

I will start this review as positively as I can manage. The genre of documentary, POV, consumer-grade, hand held video films is one of my favorites. It is a direction cinema as art should be taking. Within these films, the fact that there are directors and actors involved in production is suspended. This method sustains a kernel of truth which allows for incredible levels of immersion and flow.Forgive me since I am reviewing this film from memory.This film begins with the director's Disneyland fantasy of an enthusiastic, life loving couple. The parents here are self absorbed and constantly inviting the camera into their painful attempts at enjoyment. They are caricatures, completely without wit or realism. The fact that the producer says in the extras that his 1st task was to avoid this result is evidence of the complete lack of rigor that went into the film.This product is way too glossy and hollow...the director allowing extra financing and the inept producer on helm completely destroyed whatever vision he had.Due to boredom I almost missed the key scene for the story arc: the bedtime dragon story. I did not bemoan it...pitiful writingI was rolling on the floor when the father (who is a priest for inexplicable reasons) start his chants and exorcisms. Predictable, unbelievable...the script and production on this was constantly tearing me away from the movie.Many scenes have difficultly explaining for the presence of the camera...aftermath diaries or clues would have been sufficient instead of filming every detail like an undergrad film studentFrom the beginning I was on the side of the children. Like them, the viewer is left dissociated from the entire mess and wanting revenge on the blind, stupid, and raving spectacle in front of them.