MovieChat Forums > Home Movie (2009) Discussion > So many things wrong here...

So many things wrong here...

posted 12 years ago by sign543-6-320217
1 reply | jump to latest

***BEWARE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!****

First...the parents are seeing blatant signs of pathology and psychosis, the mother is a psychologist herself, yet no real steps are taken to intervene and have the children partake in any kind of inpatient observation.

Second...the father, every single holiday, does all of that goofy stuff...dressing up like Santa...the Easter bunny...Halloween costumes. Maybe it's just me, but he came across as a complete goof. Completely Magoo.

Third, when the cat was found crucified, that would have been the END of it. The children are clearly and severely disturbed in some way and and need close observation in an inpatient facility. The mother is a PSYCHOLOGIST! Yet, nothing is done.

Fourth...who carries around a camcorder that often? How did the camera factor in as a priority...above just making the home safe, intervening with the children and dealing with this extremely serious situation? Why would the mother have taken the camera away with her when she was smoking in secret? Useless scene. Why would the husband have filmed himself drinking whiskey? To further the plot? Poor filmmaker judgement. Any good parent would have simply dropped the camera during each serious episode. I mean, screw the camera...tend to your crazy children!

Fifth, when the father was "exorcising" the children on the bed...there is no way those sheets tied on only ONE wrist of each child would have held them. You could actually see the little girl holding on to the "knot" so it wouldn't unravel. Where was the mother when this was going on? She only comes in after he's overpowered them both...tied them both up...and has performed the ritual on them.

While it kept my interest, the film is seriously flawed..and it was those flaws that upstaged the entire film itself. It was impossible to watch without keeping those flaws in mind the entire film. If obvious problems such as these keep ripping you out of the story...it ruins the experience.

The film had no real suspense...the character development was almost nil, thus removing any possibility of sympathetic feelings for any of them.

LASTLY, there is no way in HELL that Christian's mother would have allowed him to be with those children after they had so severely assaulted him in the church bathroom, biting him all over his body. No way, no how, end of story, FULL STOP. Fatal flaw in the plot.

[–] ehaas-3 10 years ago

To me the father seemed nice; just trying too hard to be a "fun" dad and be the kid's buddy. There had been some kind of trouble in the past and the whole project of moving to the country seemed like an attempt to rehabilitate the kids through a (supposedly) positive environment.

Yes, hardly anyone would have been as oblivious to the danger they posed as their parents as well as Christian and his parents. This was a storytelling technique the film makers used to show the power the twins had on their surroundings and to show how good people can be naive in the face of true malevolence which they do not have within them.

I'm not sure what I think of the choice to play it that way. To me, the point is that even with several questionable plot and directorial issues, I was utterly chilled by those two children who seemed utterly unnatural.

Their misbehavior lacked the anger or the thrill of the taboo usually seen in problem children. They didn't seem to be under any emotional compulsion to behave this way OR to be doing it for fun. It was like they had nothing in common with other humans. I'm still chilled by their characters and the young actor's performances.

The story was basically Mr. and Mrs. Middle America vs. purposeless, arbitrary evil. Not the mocking, proud demon of the Exorcist, but an infinite consuming void.