Hatred is a powerful drug. Filmmaker Juan Morales and The Wrong Neighborhood Productions brings us Homecoming, a tale of hatred so strong that it leads to unspeakable horrors.
When a pair of Neo-Nazis attempt to terrorize their community, they encounter an ancient hunger with a centuries old grudge.
Homecoming, IMDB
As two men don ski masks and brandish guns, they terrorize another white man and his Hispanic friend. In the background, something evil lurks. What bullets don’t kill, makes the blood flow stronger. Homecoming features monsters of two kinds: one is a poor excuse for a human, and the other feasts on their essence. The two assailants meet their fate against a bloodthirsty creature with a face like their own, but a hunger only satisfied by death.
A 6-minute proof of concept for upcoming film Abhaile, Homecoming is the embodiment of “less is more.” Four characters, one setting, and some blood are all it takes to set the scene for horrors to come. Our man in the woods is draped in red from the tail lights of the truck to the blood covering his body. Without bogging down the story with unnecessary information, Homecoming is one of the few shorts that doesn’t need a ton of exposition to get the point across. Told through actions and light effect work, this proof of concept easily opens the door for expansion.
Homecoming is short and sweet. Obvious villains get the ending they deserve courtesy of someone they’d probably be in support of — fitting, considering the assailants and the man in the woods are both “monsters.” It’s a kind of horror with a message, one given in an unpretentious way that shows exactly what happens when we let our emotions and prejudices rule our lives. As I said earlier, Homecoming shows that less is more, and showing less hatred can really save you from more horror.
For more on Homecoming, follow Juan Morales on Instagram and YouTube. And as always, support indie horror!
