By Geno McGahee
There are certain killers in horror films that are terrifying and that will give you nightmares. The killer in HOME SWEET HOME is not one of them. We have the killer (Jake Steinfeld), a muscle-bound monster, that finds great joy in murdering people. In the first scene, he carjacks a guy and kills him. He laughs maniacally in a high pitch as he does it. He then runs over an old woman crossing the road, laughing maniacally again. OK, he’s not scary, but he is amusing.
We then get introduced to Bradley (Don Edmonds), the owner of a ranch and a Thanksgiving celebration. He is chasing around Mistake (Peter De Paula), an obvious fan of The Clowns from TERROR ON TOUR. His face is painted and his plays a guitar while harassing everyone in the family, especially the females. Mistake is amusing and so is Bradley. Actually, the acting is so absurd that I couldn’t help but to enjoy this.
The characters leave the house for one reason or another and they run into the insane killer. I get the impression that there was no script for this movie or if there was one, it was minimal. There just isn’t much to the story. It reminds me a great deal of SLEDGEHAMMER, a film that had the same look and also flew with little to no script. HOME SWEET HOME is far better though.
The killer finds his way to the home and outside of laughing, he did advise Mistake about women and how they are all terrible before ending the life of one of them. Eventually, the killer is down to two potential victims and is on the attack, breaking through windows and laughing yet again. What his relationship to this family is, is anyone’s guess. It’s called “HOME SWEET HOME”, which tells me that the killer must be headed home, but it may just refer to the tattoo that the killer has on his hand. It is never revealed, but I lean towards the tattoo because nobody in the family seemed to recognize him and he’s not a relative that you would forget. If you had a muscle-bound relative that laughs in a high pitch, you’d remember him.
The cops eventually show up and have no choice but to shoot the killer, but this is a horror movie and you can’t keep a good murderer down and this is no exception. The absurdity continues at the end and you are just left scratching your head and asking yourself what the fuck you just watched. I am not sure what it was and if it is good or bad, but I was amused and sat through the entire thing without hitting fast forward. So, I guess it’s good…yeah…let’s call it good.
Rating: 5/10
