Uncork’d Entertainment
There’s a kind of horror or thriller movie that is often called the ‘claustrophobic genre’, something that takes place in an enclosed space for most of the movie. Often it’s about people being trapped with danger and are trying to get out, other times it’s about potential danger (some space movies come to mind). These things tend to be a mixed bag, because depending on the story, sometimes the nature of the entrapment feels contrived. That or other things.
Homewrecker is an indie horror ‘comedy’ from director Zach Gayne, who also co-wrote with one of the stars, Precious Chong (daughter of Tommy Chong). The movie starts off in an exercise class for women, following along with young Michelle (Alex Essoe). Things spark up a bit when she gets her period unexpectedly, and Michelle then leaves to go to a cafe for some time alone. But then the first ‘issue’ arises when she sends a text to her husband about it — implying that they’ve been trying for a baby.
Suddenly an older lady, calling herself Linda (Precious Chong), shows up and aggressively introduces herself. Immediately her wide-eyed, unhinged performance is off-putting, and she gets right in Michelle’s personal space, asking about her work — which is apparently in interior design. So Linda offers to hire Michelle for her home, and then offering double when Michelle resists.
Through a series of escalating lies and gaslighting tricks, Linda manages to get Michelle in her own home where it is revealed how crazy Linda truly is — and thus we have our claustrophobia of danger. While both performances work well here — the movie is basically just these two, after all — there’s a level of contrivance that begins to strain credulity. Over and over, Michelle simply ignores warning signs (and Precious Chong plays it quite crazy indeed) and plays along until it’s too late.
Apparently something I missed is that it’s supposed to be a kind of commentary on Canadian politeness not allowing people (especially women) to be assertive without being perceived as difficult or crazy. The problem with this metaphor is that Linda is just mentally unbalanced, and a bit of unreality creeps in. Something fun, with a fake 80s VHS board game, although it feels almost not funny enough, too realistic — and then something ridiculous, that Linda doses Michelle with a truth serum. Also, it is never clear that it’s in Canada.
I feel like the movie struggles with its messaging, really wanting to be about something in the auspices of a horror movie, but it’s pretty muddled. The movie is brisk, only a bit over an hour long, and thus moves pretty well — but I think a bit more time could’ve been taken to build up Michelle’s character instead of just throwing us into her story. There are a few considering moments of insight, but mostly it’s a lot of people hurting each other.
I think there’s a lot of potential here, with some clever ideas and interesting angles, but ultimately I don’t think the payoff quite works the way the movie wants it to. On the plus side, the two lead performances are good, and they do get a few things to do, even if Alex Essoe mostly acts scared and Precious Chong mostly acts crazy. It’s enough that I’d be interested to see what the filmmakers try next.
Homewrecker has a run time of 1 hour 16 minutes and is not rated.
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