★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Thomas Sieben
Mothers-to-be rarely have it easy in horror films, and Maria (Nilam Farooq) in the 2023 German feature Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives (Wo das Böse wohnt) is no exception. Director Thomas Sieben goes the single-take route with his shocker, but viewers are sure to find themselves so invested in Maria’s plight that chances are high they won’t be looking for editing seams in the filming style.
Maria, who is in her third trimester, and her husband (David Kross) move into his family’s ancestral rural home, which the couple is looking forward to renovating into a bed and breakfast. He is stuck at work because of an important presentation, so she arrives alone in the evening to settle in for the couple’s first night there. Should any home or medical problems arise, her physician father-in-law (Justus von Dohnányi) is just a phone call and a short drive away.
This being a fear-fare feature, naturally home and medical problems surface — and what problems they are! Lights flickering, someone — or something — wandering through the house, strange sounds, a hidden room holding information about an ancestor’s role in a genocide, and vaginal bleeding. Unfortunately for Maria, these incidents are only the beginning of a horrific night.
Sieben expands on the single-take format impressively, such as incorporating historical horror scenes into the current proceedings. The camera follows Maria around for most of the time, with occasional panning from one room to another and plenty of exterior action, as well. He builds suspense and dread expertly, with Farooq giving a superb performance as her character is put through the wringer mentally and physically.
Seasoned viewers of supernatural pregnancy horror may have some early speculation as to where the film may be headed, but Sieben’s fine work at the helm and on the screenplay, combined with Farooq’s outstanding performance and solid turns from the supporting cast members, along with eerie atmosphere and finely tuned suspense, make the cinematic journey well worth the destination.
Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives, from Constantin Films, screened as part of the 2023 Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, which ran August 24–28 in London. For more information, visit https://frightfest.co.uk/.
Review by Joseph Perry
