Hell Is Where The Home Is: A weekend away gets messy for a pair of high school besties.
Hell is Where the Home is review by Kat Hughes.
Hell is Where the Home is Review
Sarah (Angela Trimbur) and Joseph (Zach Avery) are a couple with problems. Since the tragic loss of their unborn child, the pair have grown apart. Hoping to bring themselves closer again they book a trip away, renting out a house in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Joined there by Sarah’s high-school BFF Estelle, and her boyfriend Victor, the foursome proceed to kick back and relax. The festivities are interrupted however, when a strange woman (Fairuza Balk) arrives on the scene. From there on, their relaxing night and relationships unravel, can any of them survive the night?
Hell is Where the Home is is, on its surface, a home invasion movie. There is much more bubbling away underneath though. Rather than just be a case of innocents attacked randomly, there is a reason the bad guys are there and it’s simply a matter of wrong place, wrong time. The group also aren’t that innocent, between them there are drug addictions, adulterers, violent tendencies, and murderers. This means that our ‘criminals’ may have bitten off more than they can chew.
As a home invasion movie, Hell is Where the Home is works well, but it is the characterisation work that is really effective. Fairuza Balk steals all her scenes, it’s never really that clear which side her character is on, and it’s fun for the audience to try and figure out. Carlo Rota (our favourite 24 actor after Kiefer Sutherland) too is brilliant as one of the would-be tormentors. His character in 24 was so nice and funny, it’s great to see him embrace his darker side.
Director Orson Oblowitz weaves a tangled web of intrigue, slowly revealing secrets about our core characters. These revelations have the audience switching allegiances, and many will identify with different characters, and not simply the expected final person.
Hell is Where the Home is Review
Where the film is slightly let down is that the single location setting can get a little tiresome in places, especially as the layout of the house is never really highlighted for the audience. This means that as our cast are racing around and hiding etc., it’s never clear where anything is in relation to anything else. It just seems like a house with endless rooms, though most of the action is confined to the kitchen and living room.
Hell is Where the Home is offers some nice perspectives on the home invasion genre, with some interesting character work elevating it more than others.
Hell is Where the Home is review by Kat Hughes, August 2018.
Hell is Where the Home is screened as part of Arrow Video Frightfest 2018.
