BLOODY HOMECOMING (2013)

BLOODY HOMECOMING (2013)

Tagline: Come home to terror.

(Horror, Homecoming, Faculty Issues) [R]

Note: This movie was not given an MPA rating. It likely would have landed an [R]. Streaming services have it listed as TV-MA which is essentially the streaming equivalent of [R]. 

Well, those kids didn't just simply plant those notes in those lockers themselves, and I can't go around accusing my students without some sort of...

In this one, a group of freshmen teens sneak into a classroom at their school at night to skipping the school dance. Billy takes his girlfriend Annie to another room and wants to have sex with her. Annie isn’t going for it and he starts to try and rape her. Loren shows up and takes a bat to Billy’s head sending him to the ground, while she and Amy escape. In the scuffle, a candle Billy had in there gets knocked over and starts a fire. Billy is killed in the incident. Homecoming is canceled at the school for the following 3 years. Homecoming has been reinstated for the senior year making the teens uneasy. It doesn’t take long before each of the students involved in Billy’s death is being hunted down by a killer dressed in a firefighter uniform. Has Billy returned? 

One thing that stands out about this thing is that it does actually take time to show you what these teens are like. Annie has kind of become a recluse medicating her pain away in spite of her friends reaching out. Loren is still confident, and can handle herself, but does have an empathy for Annie. Cassie is outgoing, Jacklyn is a bit hardercore than she was before and is dating a cop, and so on. This thing comes complete with a janitor who can’t stand kids, a sleazy principal, incompetent faculty, and all that great stuff you want in a high school slasher. 

Some people hated this thing, but if you grew up on 80’s slashers, this is going to be right in your wheelhouse. Mediocre to bad acting, so-so writing, a killer whose face we don’t see because of the firefighter outfit, awesome clichés, gloriously ordinary horror tropes. It’s all quite a bit better than I expected for a B-movie that is getting pretty thrashed in the reviews. Then again, you are probably reading my reviews because I don’t always suck up to popular opinion. 

Acting wise this is a solid outing for Lexi Giovagnoli (VARSITY BLOOD) as Loren. She is definitely my favorite character in this. I thought Grainne McDermott (THE UNCANNY) did a good job as Annie in the short amount of screen time she got. This was also her first film ever. Taryn Cervarich is decent as Cassie but stopped acting in 2014. Randi Lamey (THE FAST FIVE) is pretty epic as Jaclyn. She is probably my second favorite character in this. Rae Latt is also very good as Mrs. Patterson in this. She is probably best known for her work in TV (9-1-1, Criminal Minds). Elizabeth Bigger plays Nora, I kind of think she was meant to just be a throwaway character because she isn’t given any depth. Elizabeth only has one acting credit even though her bio says she had been acting for a while before this. This might sound bad, but every dude in this movie sucked in it. It’s grating just listening to them go through the motions especially since the females in the cast are all at least trying. Maybe some went on to better things, but man on man. 

I am pretty forgiving of flaws when it comes to B-movies, but this one isn’t all sharpened batons and roses. It does feel like they threw a few scenes in here just to fill time. The Homecoming scene is about 7 minutes of nonsense. The finale feels a bit dragged out. I don’t know that we really needed the villain’s long monolog and that sort of stuff, but the pacing for the most part works. 

All the effects are practical which I really appreciated. The setting feels very 80’s even though it’s in modern day. For fans of 80’s style cheese slashers, this is pretty fantastic. I am going to give it a solid 5 out of 7. An improved soundtrack, passable acting from the male cast, and a better score would have put this one over the top.

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