A pregnant woman experiences some spooky happenings while alone in her new home, before uncovering a disturbing family secret down in the basement and finding herself in a whole heap of nightmares in this German horror movie. And it turned out to be a very well-done and enjoyable thrill ride too.
As always, things start off pretty calm and normal, although we do get a brief glimpse from later on in the film to let us know that things definitely will go south. Heavily pregnant Maria (Nilam Farooq) is arriving at the family home of her fiancé Viktor (David Kross). The couple have plans to turn the rural building into a bed and breakfast and work is well underway on the property, although Viktor is currently at his day job, so Maria is going to be home alone for a while. She has a brief encounter with her new neighbour, who expresses disappointment at the couples plans to extend onto a plot of land out back where he played as a youngster and where bees are now kept. Just a little something to get some alarm bells ringing.
Inside the house, Maria has Viktor on video call to keep her company, who is just about to go into an important meeting. At one point she also has to get her father-in-law Wilhelm (Justus von Dohnányi) on video call, to help her find the fuse box following a power cut. It’s at this point where we get our first scare of the movie, something that is unseen by Maria, and it’s a pretty effective one too. With the lights back on, she calls Viktor again but then discovers some spotting. The call ends so that she can contact Wilhem for advice, who is a doctor. He tells Maria to put her feet up and get some rest, and he’ll come over to check she and the baby are OK.
Unfortunately though, there’s not much chance of rest as the lights keep flickering, strange noises are coming from somewhere in the house, and there still seems to be some kind of ghostly presence occasionally approaching Maria that only we can see!
As Maria heads back down to the basement where she found the fuse box earlier, I had two thoughts. Firstly, with all the corridors and rooms down there, that basement is huge! And secondly, it only dawned on me at that point that up until now we appear to have only had one camera single shot. The camera moves around Maria as she finds her way around the house, following her increasing panic, without seemingly ever breaking shot. And as the movie continues, so does that single take. And it is very effective. The meticulous planning that must have been involved, especially in coordinating the scares and the positioning of Maria and the camera, not to mention Nilam Farooq herself, who is on screen for about 99% of the movie and really does an incredible job. All of that I really appreciated, and it made for a very intense watch.
Down in the basement, Maria comes across a room with war memorabilia related to Viktor’s great-grandfather. By reading through diary entries she discovers the horrific truth that in 1905 he was involved in The Herero and Nama Genocide, a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment that was waged against the Herero and the Nama in German South West Africa by the German Empire. On the wall of the room, Maria also discovers the word ‘Atone’ written in what looks like blood and she decides to get the hell out of there quickly and wait for Wilhelm to arrive. Trouble is, when Wilhelm does arrive, he reveals a much darker and deeper family secret, which soon puts Maria in a whole lot of danger.
The rest of the movie certainly does pan out differently to how I was expecting. It’s not perfect, but like I said before, it’s the performance of Nilam Farooq that really sells it. That and the brilliant camerawork, which controls and builds tension without resorting to jump scares. Overall, a really pleasant surprise.
Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives is on digital platforms 30th September, from Blue Finch Film Releasing
Where to Watch
4.6
Web developer by day, with a movie and TV watchlist that continues to grow as much as my spare time reduces! My favourite movie is Inception and, despite what everyone says, I do not have a man-crush on Tom Cruise.
