Out of Fantasia Film Festival, Casey Walker’s Home Bodies robotically shuffles between homage and a sleepy The Twilight Zone carbon copy. Sci-fi thrillers can so easily fall into the Black Mirror trap, or better yet feel too indebted to the Rod Serling-created television show to carve out a unique place of their own. As such, Home Bodies does little to reengage with the dystopian structure that hasn’t already been replastered with a new skin over the last 70 years. Great instincts and notions appear buried behind a wall of blustering static and a tragically cold script that drains all energy from the room. Despite an inventive set design, every other piece of the greater puzzle fails to fit into place, resulting in a lifeless narrative.
Red (Emma Ho) and Blue (Ian Ho) have been raised together in an automated incubator. It’s the only life they’ve ever known. Their days begin with cereal and watching an episode of “Barn,” delivered on VHS tape each morning through a cupboard beneath their TV set. Some days, Blue colors pages from a coloring book and sticks them on the wall. Other days, Blue and Red play a game of catch and see how high they can count. They eat, and then go to bed. Rinse and repeat. Everything seems so normal that they neither question the state of their reality nor the fact that they can only speak to “Papa,” a disembodied voice, from behind a metal door. They do get their one glimmer of joy, Noel Days (their version of Christmas), on which “Papa” gifts them various toys and gadgets to preoccupy their time.
On the 42nd Noel Day, a mysterious figure named Pal (Ess Hödlmoser) appears behind their perfectly decorated Christmas tree. They don’t know who or what it is, and “Papa” refuses to tell them anything about Pal. Red immediately befriends the doll-like being, inviting it to play with her and even giving up her bed to her new friend. Blue grows increasingly jealous of their burgeoning relationship, which leads to fractured tensions among the group and cruel actions that could lead to their world being completely disrupted. The intrigue of the premise, unfortunately, never revs into overdrive or leads anywhere significant. The commentary of Home Bodies never sharpens its fangs or bites hard enough to justify its existence behind a cool location.
Filmmaker Casey Walker explores parasitic relationship dynamics, gender, companionship, societal constraints, and the necessity of questioning human existence. Home Bodies doesn’t, however, push the envelope beyond a surface-level reading of these themes, resulting in half-toasted ideas and a limp finale. The film mixes The Cabin in the Woods and the 2011 “Fifteen Million Merits” episode of Black Mirror, without the grit, meta-awareness, and incisive thesis about the modern world.
Aside from its set design, Casey Walker’s Home Bodies does have another thing going for it: two solid lead performances from Emma and Ian. By the third act, the big reveal doesn’t carry the intended punch or shock and leaves far more questions than any concrete answers. It sets up for a sequel, but the audience has become so disinterested that it’s more frustrating than anything else.
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