Home Sweet Home (1981)

User Rating:

3.3/10   

Director:

Nettie Peña

Writer:

Thomas Bush (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

This year, it's not the turkey being carved for Thanksgiving

Plot:

An escaped mental patient steals a station wagon and makes his way to the Bradleys' Thanksgiving celebration, where he plans to make them a little less thankful... |

Plot Keywords:

Thanksgiving | Escaped Mental Patient | Little Girl | Police Car | Kissing

Cast

Jake Steinfeld	...	Killer
Vinessa Shaw	...	Angel
Peter De Paula	...	Mistake
Don Edmonds	...	Bradley
Charles Hoyes	...	Wayne
David Mielke	...	Scott
Leia Naron	...	Gail
Lisa Rodríguez	...	Maria
Colette Trygg	...	Jennifer
Sallee Young	...	Linda
J. Kelly	...	Cop #1
R. Fouts	...	Cop #2
Victor Paddock	...	First Victim
Rochelle Constanten	...	Old Woman
Anne Cribbs	...	Witness

Also Known As:

Slasher in the House

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:R | Norway:18 | UK:18

Nettie Pena's Home Sweet Home

Also known as "Slasher in the House," this silly slasher flick is

notable only for exercise guru Jake Steinfeld's awful turn as the

killer.

In an isolated ranch house, a group of friends gather for a big

meal. I see turkey, I see cranberry sauce, but no one ever

mentions the word "thanksgiving." The characters include a

Mexican singer, her blustery boyfriend, a little girl, a record exec,

his girlfriend, another woman, and a golden blond couple who are

the obvious heroes. Oh, yes, I forgot the exec's son- a talking

mime who plays an unplugged electric guitar. You want him to be

the first to die, but we don't get everything we wish for...like a

decent film. Everyone is dispatched one by one in the course of the

evening, until just the killer and the heroine is left. In the middle of

the chase, she suffers a fainting spell and the police bail her out of

trouble, guns blazing.

While car trouble has long been a staple of this type of film, "Home

Sweet Home" is not satisfied with just one breaking down. Here,

we have TWO cars not start, meaning the victims, I mean

occupants, must get out and walk and die.

Everyone is killed by Jake, who sports David Hasselhoff's Knight

Rider era hair and a great big knife. All the gore consists of fake

blood, liberally spilled. Not only is the production amateurish, so is

the post production, as most of the dialogue, and Jake's maniacal

laugh, are poorly dubbed.

The silliest aspect of the entire film is the amount of characters

who go "looking" for other characters. Half the cast leaves and is

killed, and the remaining living come up with the worst excuses for

where they could be. How many Thanksgiving meals are interrupted by trips to the local bar to watch the big game?

If you want to pity anyone (besides me for sitting through this), pity

the little girl who at one point is abandoned in a dark room with

killer Jake. Only after the heroic couple vacate the premises do

they decide they should probably try to retrieve the defenseless

child. It is this kind of stupidity that takes even the smallest amount

of campy fun out of this effort.

In the end, Jake is unkillable because he is on PCP. At least it

wasn't because of something dumb. "Home Sweet Home" is one

unwelcome guest, skip it.

This is unrated and contains strong physical violence, gun

violence, strong gore, strong profanity, brief female nudity, some

sexual content, and drug abuse.