Domestic closed-set chillers are consistently dependable. Having your family and residence, which are supposed to be the safest things, turn out to be the most dangerous things is disturbing. Whenever a loved one betrays you, the stress, perplexity, and sadness you experience are crippling.
You have all the ingredients for something unsettling, if not downright terrifying, especially when combined with the evocative gloom of a darkened British estate. Homebound nails all the right notes, even if it doesn’t invent a new song, by borrowing from other household creepers like Dogtooth, The Turning, The Lodge, and the guilty delight The Stepfather.
This taut psychological thriller’s writer and director, Sebastian Godwin, don’t waste any time creating tension. Homebound is an enlarged short that has been fleshed out with a running duration of over an hour.
However, there are enough dread-filled portions and terrific set pieces to make this an excellent movie, even though it doesn’t ultimately work. Unfortunately, three spooky kids, an unpredictable husband, and a trustworthy young wife create a disaster recipe.
Homebound Movie Plot:
Ashley Loftus and Tom’s Goodman characters, Hill’s Holly and Richard, just got hitched. They are traveling to Richard’s rural house so Holly can greet his three children for the first time. Richard has previously been married. Things start bizarre right when they arrive.
The children’s mother is missing, and the kids are strange, if not dangerous. Stranger still, nobody appears overly concerned about Richard’s ex-disappearance. Wife Instead, everyone goes about their business as if leaving three children unattended in a remote area of the nation with no supplies or information is entirely normal.
Holly, however, has a bad gut feeling that something terrible is happening. There is much to be concerned about between the kids’ vacant glances and Richard pressuring his youngster to kill a bird. But, even if it’s just for a short while, a night of drinking with the kids helps her overcome her inhibitions.
Holly grows increasingly worried the longer she stays there and has every right to be. The fact that the kids are acting outright threatening and that Richard has started working aggressively toward Holly should raise serious concerns.
She defies her instincts, though, and maintains a stiff upper lip, just like many defenseless and innocent women before her. She wants to think rather than what she sees, just like Rebecca and Mia Farrow’s Rosemary.
She tries to go, but it’s too late, and Richard tries to pull her back. Lucia grabs a shovel and murders him as she struggles to escape from him. She hugs Holly after that, and they go back to the house so that the kids can finally reveal to Holly what’s in the cellar.
Unfortunately, his ex-wife passed away before Richard and Holly arrived, and the kids have kept it a secret ever since. The usual divorce bitterness hasn’t resulted in the kids misbehaving.
Instead, they experience the tragedy of a deceased mother and an abusive father. Anna’s older sister sought to shield her from the sadness of her mother’s passing since she couldn’t accept it. Instead, she informed Anna that their mother was enjoying some quiet time.
The Ending of Homebound Explained
The kids’ discontentment with seeing their father has been clear from early on. Much of that could be attributed to children who are upset because their father has moved on. However, Richard’s treatment of his kids raises serious concerns.
When he feels like it, he humiliates and bullies them before treating them like grownups. He is a master manipulator as well, and he employs the exact strategies to manipulate Holly and keep her on edge. For instance, Richard abandons her to clean up last night’s meal without a second thought since he views his new wife as a tool.
She acts as his companion and is there to simplify his life. Unfortunately, his erratic actions are enough to drive anyone crazy. The next, he scolds her for being afraid of his unstable children after lavishing her with praise the moment before.
When the kids tie them up, yell at them, and harm Holly while singing about their hidden wedding, he demands his son’s apology for being too rough with Holly in the pool but then dismisses her worries. Despite Holly repeatedly saying “no,” he maltreats her, displaying other physical indicators of abuse.
It’s terrible when a terrifying weekend vacation comes to an abrupt end. The kids coerce Richard and Holly into playing a combative and violent version of the wedding game after Holly discovers Richard’s ex-phone wives in Lucia’s room. Holly screams in distress.
She strikes Lucia in the face, and things quickly get out of hand. Richard presents absurd justifications for the kids’ and his wife’s disappearance. He is deliberately trying to convince himself that everything is okay. But unfortunately, Richard needs help understanding what is happening.
The kids refuse to disclose where their mother is when Holly compels Richard to ask them, yet it becomes pretty apparent that something terrible happened to her. He demands answers, almost drowning Ralph in the process, instead of alerting the authorities or speaking quietly with the kids.
All the kids are silent as he commands Anna to stop sobbing. Holly recognizes then that she has committed a grave error. If only she had read the signs that were all around her. She saw Anna burying her doll and talking about being with her family now, among other strange behaviors. She should have pressed for answers sooner or fled for her life, especially considering their mother’s absence.
She tries to go, but it’s too late, and Richard attempts to pull her back. Lucia gets a hold of a shovel and murders him as she struggles to escape from him. She hugs Holly after that, and they go back to the house so that the kids can finally reveal to Holly what’s in the cellar.
His ex-wife passed away before Richard and Holly arrived, and the kids have kept it a secret ever since. The usual divorce bitterness hasn’t resulted in the kids misbehaving. Instead, they experience the tragedy of a deceased mother and an abusive father. Anna’s older sister sought to shield her from the sadness of her mother’s passing since she couldn’t accept it.
Instead, she informed Anna that their mother was enjoying some quiet time. The moment Holly emerges from the cellar, horrified by what she has seen, Lucia exclaims, “It’s time,” as the camera focuses on her face. The insinuation is that she will now also lose her life to the kids. Holly’s final appearance is gloomy. Before the movie is over, she says no while displaying fear.
Why did the children kill everyone?
Richard refuses to acknowledge that he is responsible for his kids becoming monsters. He probably mistreated their mother and either won’t or cannot take responsibility for their suffering. Their mother likely killed herself because his abuse damaged her over the years. It was distraught when he remarried, or both.
It’s certainly possible that the kids started mistreating her or even killed her, but it seems more likely that they discovered her body and have been defending themselves ever since. They even inform Richard; they won’t enter a nursing home when they say as much. They were aware that their father wouldn’t desire them to reside with them and didn’t want them to in the first place.
At least one of the parents has likely been abusing the children since they were too little. They were wounded by an odd cycle of verbal and physical abuse, accompanied by risky permissiveness. Ralph, Lucia, and Anna; were tormented until they lost it. Finally, they killed their mother, who may have also been abusive or only tried to discipline them, which set off the events we witnessed in Homebound.
They were likely terrified and angry because Richard was a tyrant who made their lives miserable. They had excellent reason to be, it turned out. His awful parenting style comprised violence, coldness, anger, and condemnation. It’s a disgusting concoction that killed Holly and destroyed three other youngsters.
Richard and Holly had to be killed by the kids for various reasons. Because Richard was harming Holly, Lucia killed him. They had to kill Holly after showing her the dead body in their cellar to protect themselves.
Other than the fact; that they couldn’t risk Holly finding out about their secret, they didn’t have the motive to kill Holly. The kids did alert Holly. She should leave, they informed her right away. If she had, she would be living today just listening.
