Home Movie (2008)

"I dare you to watch until our movie is done" 

The movie opens with a close up of a dead animal, that is infested with flies and maggots, someone then picks it up and puts it in a red wagon.  We then get a run down on the special events programmed into the video camera being used, like Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Easter, etc. The odd part is that 'Happy Thanksgiving' is listed as what it is, but when spoken by the camera, as an automated response, comes out as 'Have a terrible Thanksgiving'.   The camera then switches over and we meet the Poe family, David and Clare and their children, Jack and Emily.  It is Halloween, which also happens to be Jack and Emily's birthday.  Clare brings out their cake, and the kids blow the candles out, but when they can't blow them all out, Jack pours water on the cake. We then cut to later that night when Jack and Emily are playing hide and seek, with David and Clare seeking them out.  They find the kids hiding in the shed, but when they are about to head back inside one of the kids bites Clare.

Another cut takes us to a new day, where David and Jack are playing baseball.  Jack hits the ball into the forest, as they live in the middle of nowhere, David asks Clare to go get it and she heads into the woods.  Looking for the ball, she see's Emily sitting outside of her and Jack's clubhouse.   Clare asks Emily if she's seen the ball, but Emily shakes her head no, Clare turns to look for the ball again, and Emily tosses it to where Clare is looking.  Clare turns and asks why she didn't give it when she was asked, but gets no reply.   She then asks if she can record the clubhouse, for future memories, but Emily just points to the sign that reads 'No Parents Allowed'.  Clare says she is going to go back to watching the game and asks if Emily wants to come with.  Emily agrees and Clare pulls Emily back to the yard in the red wagon, where Emily lays, playing dead.  Back in the yard the game abruptly ends, as instead of throwing the ball, Jack throws a rock that hits David in the hand. 

"I think it's cute"

The next cut takes us to November 9th, David and Clare's anniversary, where they have a talk while Clare's in the shower.  We learn a few things here like, they only moved into this house 6 months ago, David's a pastor, and that the camera is suppose to only be used for Clare's work.  David's about to get in the shower with Clare when their dog starts whinning outside the kids bedroom, they go to investigate and find Jack and Emily in bed together, asleep.  David thinks it's cute, but Clare finds it weird, they turn to leave, but when they look back, both kids are standing.  David then reads the kids a rather strange bed time story, where a 2 headed dragon goes to school on Halloween, but the kids make fun of him for having 2 heads, that each have a paper bag.  The school kids want the dragon to take off the paper bags, but he can't until lunch, and when he does, he eats all the other children.  They then tuck the kids in and say goodnight to their 2 goldfish, Steven and Lou, and the frog, Nikolai.  

The next cut takes us into Clare's office where we find out that she is a pediatric psychologist, and she starts talking about one of her case studies.  On November 18th, they record Jack and Emily in pilgrim costumes for their school play.  Clare sees that Jack made his own lunch, but when she goes to check it she discovers that it's the two goldfish on white bread.  Cut to Thanksgiving and everyone is sitting down at the table praying, except Jack and Emily who throw their cups and plates on the floor.  Cool part here when Emily drops her cup, it lands upright.  They then rewind the footage to the beginning of dinner and tape over with the next cut.  We are now outside the shed where David is teaching Jack how to pick a lock.  Inside the shed, David teaches Jack to tie knots, for boy scouts, while Emily plays with Nikolai.  When Jack finishes his knot we turn to Emily who has put Nikolai in a vice grip.

"They will pray"

It's now the middle of December and the Poe's are heading to cut down a Christmas tree.  In the car, Jack and Emily are talking in their own language and drawing, Clare wants to know what they're saying and drawing, but they don't acknowledge her.  On Christmas morning, after they open presents, David starts a water gun fight with Jack.  David runs to hide in the closet, but discovers their cat crucified to the wall.  The next day, Clare is in her office and starts a case study on Jack and Emily on what might be their problem.  On New year's Eve, David and Clare are planning to go out, but they get into a big fight because David has been drinking all day.  Later that night, Clare hears whining coming from the kid bedroom and finds David in bed, sleeping, with Jack and Emily, who are covered in bite marks.  Clare wants to know who did it and the kids reply that it was the man in the closet.  Our next cut is in Clare's office where she tells us that David was abused when he was a child, and if he drinks too much becomes violent.

It is now Valentine's day, Clare arrives home announces that she is taking the kids to her moms house.  David and Clare start fighting, but a phone call interrupts them, we then learn that Jack and Emily cornered a boy, Christian, and started biting him.  In Clare's office, Clare realizes that no one is behind the bites, but that Jack and Emily were biting each other.  They end up splitting them up, with Jack staying in his room, and Emily moving to the attic.  David goes up to the attic to talk about the incident and the fact that he found a drawing that shows that the attack was premeditated.  Clare tries to give Jack the Rorschach test, but he doesn't say anything and when she tries to take the papers away he grips her arm. Clare prescribes them pills, which if taking more than one will result in an unconscious coma.  However, David decides to take a more dramatic route of performing an exorcism on the kids.  We are then transported to Easter day, where Clare tells us that the medicine is working for the kids and they have befriended Christian, inviting him over to hunt for Easter eggs. 

"Your body will go, into what we call, an unconscious coma"

When it's time to hunt, they find that the kids have escaped through their window.  David heads out to find them and stumbles across the family dog's head on a pole.  He then heads into their clubhouse where he find more drawings of killings, a family picture with David and Clare scratched out, and more dead animals.  David hears noises behind a curtain that is hung in the clubhouse, behind it is Christian tied to a table with a trash bag over his head.  The next cut brings us to David and Clare telling us that since it's Easter Sunday, the kids are still at the house, but tomorrow they will be put into a juvenile detention for attempted murder until they are 18.  Later that night when David and Clare are asleep the kids take the camera and watch what was recorded.  They then start recording "The Jack & Emily Show," they say they can see us and they challenge us to a staring contest, betting that we can't stare 'til the end.  The kids head out to the shed to get rope, nails, which they sprinkle in the woods, they cut the phone lines, and the lights.  Jack then uses the method of picking a lock from earlier to get into their parents room, where they tie their parents up and drag them to the kitchen.

"I see you"

The kids, who made soup earlier, put the bowls in front of Clare and David then leave the room.  Clare manages to get out of the binds and goes to grab the bat from upstairs.  Jack and Emily beat her to the stairs and stabs her, she gets away and manages to lure them to the basement, where she is able to get the upper hand.  Clare then corrals them into the kitchen, when she hears David fall, she goes to check on him.  She finds him unconscious and an alarm starts going off, she heads to the kitchen to find the soup on the stove and pills next to it.  Realizing that they have been drugged she runs out of the house, with the kids and the camera on her tail.  In the woods she ends up stepping on the nails and is less than 5 feet from a road when she passes out.  The kids drag her back to the house in the red wagon and tie her and David up on the dining room table.  The movie then ends with the kids sitting at the table with paper bags on their heads, just like the dragon, and a knife and fork in each hand as the slowly turn towards the camera.

The End.

Awesome movie!  I absolutely loved it, it was funny, but also had an element of horror, with the 2 future serial killers.  I thought the kid actors did a wonderful job on the creepy level.  The only issue I have with this movie is the ending, as Clare comments that they have been drugged, but how?  I thought maybe it was in the soup, but neither Clare or David ate the soup, so I'm a little confused on that, however it was a great movie overall.  Tell me what you thought of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@SilentToHughes) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes)

Hope you all have a great night!