It appears as if James Bamford is becoming quite appreciated in the directing circles, and why not after spending years stunt performing and directing, focused primarily on DC Comics TV shows, ‘Hard Home’ is the fourth project of Bamford which is getting released this year. The reality of the matter is that the first three in the list of previously released works, Air Force One Down, Jade, and Shadow Land were three out of bad ones.
Here he is working on the screenplay by Mark Shea, other paragraphs on short movies like The Mayans Were Right and Raised By Fish, the backstory loves. It begins with Mary (Simone Kessell, Terra Nova, Yellowjackets), who is out for a jog in the woods, only to get accosted by a Polaroid camera-toting nut case, Andrew Howard (True Memoirs of an International Assassin, Bates Motel) who is tracking her to an abandoned graveyard.
He disregards the discomfort of being maced, but just before he takes her life, she manages to inject him with a tranquilizer. After that, he is forced into her Land Rover, and she departs for her modern and luxurious mansion that she built herself. She finds out that he is the infamous serial killer known as Diablo, and one of his already located victims is her daughter Kelly (Rosie Day, The Convent, Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon). She can use her house’s security to be much more than a typical homeowner, but instead, Jigsaw from the future.
The third act twist occurs early on where the film has just begun and we see a handsome professional having his fun time as a killer, the police have been searching for him for years, only to be taken down by an amateur woman who just happens to know how to find him, and is attractive whilst doing so. Another cliché scenario is how a mother from hell gave birth to a psycho and then abused him to the point where he grew up and became a serial killer who specifically goes out of his way to hunt women who are the primary victims. Making illogical sense is more sentimental value in everything that is wrong with a young little girl woman who prays for some medical illness and who would always remain to suffer the deprivation of drugs her whole life until she finally gets cured, only to be killed by Diablo.
However, perhaps the worst case scenario is that Mary isn’t satisfied with just locking him in the basement and slowly removing parts of his flesh as in what happens in the American psychological horror film 7 Days, 3: An Eye for an Eye or any of the remakes and sequels to I Spit on Your Grave. To the contrary, hе has opted to construct his home as a labyrinth embellished with dozens of newspapers about his criminal saga, several broadcasts of the same, and brutal, if not fatal, traps. At this point, she occupies a space filled with several televisions, with a picture of her missing daughter displayed in the center, sitting dangerously and watching him from several angles while using an alarm system to connect his movements around the room with insensible shocking points. Although she does not have a mental illness as severe as his level of a psychopathic killer, it is easy to note the signs that ensure she is far from being stable.
I’m not sure what the filmmakers were expecting, as it seems rather pointless watching Diablo go from one exhibit to another on his criminal activities, but it did nothing for me as it was all too monotonous. It somehow failed in exhilarating the audience and became uninteresting since even the notion that he was a victim of his mother’s abusiveness as well is a stretch as well as making him a figure that cannot be relatable at all, however, the perspective that some might get to enjoy watching him in agony is valid. If you have a desire to see him being tortured, then sure, otherwise it is very dull.
However, it is only at this point where he manages to throw a large rock and destroy her sophisticated spheres, and then subsequently has the opportunity to exploit her device before she can do so, attends something thrilling. But even that is spoiled by Mary’s exploration including her conversation with FBI agent Wall (Rachel Adedeji, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned, Hollyoaks), her husband Robert (Joseph Millson, Fyre Rises, Dragonheart Vengeance) leaving her constantly and seeing clips of Diablo being yelled at by his mother on repeat.
Next, we have Mary’s neighbour, Jiao (Daphne Cheung, Ashes, Spider-Man: Far from Home), whose presence is not only banal but forced and only comes in to get the script out of the corner it has backed itself into.
There is also a more common Western issue of racism and classism which any viewer can easily pick out. An incredibly wealthy white woman has to protect other American white women from a Latino day laborer who happens to be a serial killer. That’s because the black FBI agent given the task of catching him does not seem to be up to the task. The audience is introduced to the film’s only other non-white character, Jiao, who is such an obnoxious Karen that her 911 calls were banned her number. That it is the icing on an already foul season, out the cake.
Hard Home is hard work but not for the reasons one would like to be challenged by. And after watching it, I am not shocked in the least that the distributor withheld review screeners until the release date, it perplexes me why they sent out any at all when the film had already been torn apart.
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