Come Home review

By Terry Sherwood

City folk facing the terrors of country life have come a long way from James Dickeys novel Deliverance and 1972 film. Genre fans know this well in the countless teenage camp slaughter fests and folk horror beasties that raise their collective often scarred heads. No one wakes up inside a colossal figure of flammable material but Come Home, a film by Nicole Pursell and Caitlin Zoz that brings together this theme, adding vengeful spirits psychological madness and against tranquil lake front property. 

One wonders if this taps into the X Generation who think one can point click themselves to wealth in an afternoon using a financial app. Clearly yes, in this case a young New York couple changes everything, in search of a less frenetic life, by moving to the Adirondack Mountains, to immerse themselves in nature. Another couple spends a few days with them to camp and enjoy the place.  Naturally, there is a campfire story of a drowned woman who called ‘Come home’ to contend with. Those mountains are not what they expect, the lake becomes a blacken tarn at night, the house is bare, the neighbors are strange, the forest that overlooks them is ominous in an Evil Dead way 

 A few days of fun, the folk find themselves increasingly immersed in this thick forest that completely envelops them, making them lose contact with reality, taking them to a mystical place where they will see and hear ghosts. In wood lore, this is called Rapture that usually takes place underwater.  

Come Home starts extremely well with along the almost freezing frame of the lake in which you can hear odd sounds like screams. This is quite effective as fact. It was proven that one could hear screams across the lake that were thought to be a wild party, which turned out to be The Manson murders. The film gets cluttered with trying to build character through dialogue and sensitivity of bonding, which frankly get carried away.   

 The haunting takes control, causing them to see a woman lurking in the woods. Oddly, the woman seems in the end to look like an older blond therapist or someone that is upset they can’t get fried aruglia and white wine. However, the friends are trying to understand what the spirit wants. You get axe freakouts in fields. Buried bodies against the open woodlands are also beautiful to travel through. The ‘privileged rich “get confused by it all and no one takes charge to find out what is happening, why and how to i get out of it. Sort of exercise in the martyrdom of having to park farther away from a club, having to walk, then whining you are hard done by and need a change.

The story struggles to be a story of interest, almost looking like the supernatural aspect was tacked on and filtered into something else. Not enough dread, lingering nature shots, not enough mystery against some lovely backgrounds. Horror without horror.

Come Home is now available on digital platforms.