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ACTOR
Peter BroccoFrances FullerWilliam HansenRuth McDevitt
DIRECTOR
Larry Yust
SYNOPSICS
Homebodies (1974) is a English movie. Larry Yust has directed this movie. Peter Brocco,Frances Fuller,William Hansen,Ruth McDevitt are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1974. Homebodies (1974) is considered one of the best Comedy,Horror movie in India and around the world.
When a quiet group of pensioners learn that their homes are to be torn down to make way for a block of flats, they decide to take action. What starts as an attempt to discourage the developers soon escalates into wholesale murder of both the developers and the construction workers.
Same Actors
Same Director
Homebodies (1974) Reviews
A silver-haired classic
Grim, sad, nihilistic drama about abandoned elderly people who pull together to preserve their home and dignity. That's the soft sell. The hard sell? After uncaring developers condemn a building and threaten to toss the aged residents onto the street, the residents retaliate with murder. For a drama, there's plenty of horror here, and there's much food for thought, too. The harsh way we treat our elderly citizens is directly addressed, as is the issue of the limted tenure we all have on this planet. An interesting message buried here-in is that the young underestimate the old at their peril because the old are smarter, more sly, more patient and more experienced. The performances are excellent, as is the direction, photography and music. The murders are cleverly conceived and executed with grim resolve, and one scene involving permanent incarceraton in concrete is a showstopper. When I first saw this film, I was struck by its cold, depressing tone and I admired it for its recognition of real problems associated with aging. The idea of the old killing the young is a novel one and employed to great effect in "Homebodies". It's a silver-haired classic.
Geri-Cult
This one is truly original. A Cult film for the Geriatric crowd. It is good to see that I am not the only one who was impressed with this obscure film from when HBO was in its infancy (channel 6 anyone?) There are some very good actors associated with this project for anyone who was conscious in the 60's and 70's. From Ruth McDevitt to Ian Wolfe you have seen them before in many supporting roles, here you get to see them lead. The film almost has a strange aura similar to The Sentinel (1977) although without the supernatural aspects. Here we have a social satire which focuses on the geriatric crowd affirming their rights in the face of oppression. Coming out of the era of civil rights don't think this subject matter wasn't a projection of society in which many sub-cultures where finding ways to be empowered. This film takes that premise and twists it into some very humorous and macabre situations. The cement pouring scene is a memorable one which stands alongside any early giallo for inventiveness. Dated but still worth it if you can find it if cult is your thing.
Sassafras Sundays
Genuinely unique and creepy, Homebodies tells the depressing story of what life is like after society has discarded you. A group of elderly people have had their apartment building, home for much of their lives, condemned, and they have been asked to move to a new residence. When they realize they don't want to move, they take business into their own hands. They stab, sabotage, drown a man in cement, and kill in numerous other ways to keep home, sweet home. While director Larry Yust doesn't have a huge budget at his disposal, it clearly is not needed given the subject matter and the tenements of Cinncinatti serving as a backdrop. This film has a seedy, dark, futile feel to it, and underlying its sick,twisted plot - the deaths are executed with little remorse or feeling. The elderly, who at first illicit pity, soon turn into cold killing machines - very much like what they attack - a huge conglomerate business and "progress." Homebodies is a bona fide horror film and a black comedy as well. The humour is subtle but definitely there. I particularly liked the ending and thought that was a very clever bit to end such a film with. Solid direction and a perverse yet fresh and interesting script aside, the acting for me is what carried this film. The elderly inhabitants are all equally played with polish and pathos by a crew of geriatric character talents - all unfortunately no longer with us - that bring their characters alive - foibles, fears, and all. Paula Trueman plays the biggest role as Mattie. She is sort of a Ruth Gordon type. She is also the personification of evil in the group. She shows us what the elderly are able to get away with because everyone discounts them and their worth. Trueman does an able job creating a woman who is selfish, willful, and downright bad. Ian Wolfe and Ruth McDevitt play the couple that ran the building for so long. Both do very good jobs and create possibly more than anyone else the compassionate side of being old and "left out." Peter Brocco does a wonderful job as an elderly blind man - who has powers that probably any realistic elderly blind man would not possess. Brocco does an incredible job. The last two members are played by William Hansen and Frances Fuller. Fuller plays a woman that has not left her room for twenty years and speaks to her dead father at the dinner table. Hansen plays a man consumed with writing his memoirs of his marriage of 55 years. All of these actors did a marvelous job with their characters. Homebodies is a good film. It is a scary picture, subtly humorous, and thought provoking. The scenes of these tenants being moved to a soul-less huge apartment complex where every room is the same and people just sit on benches waiting to die struck me as particularly horrific. Or the scene with an elderly blind man being shoved into a room - not having learned the dimensions of the room at all. Or maybe the scene of a man pleading with a socially progressive woman about how moving his things, which had taken him a lifetime to sort, would never be able to be put together in the same fashion. He said he literally did not have the time left. These images and many more in Homebodies frightened me more than anything else. Because the sad truth is we offer little time and reflection to those concerns unless we are directly affected as a society. That is the real horror in Homebodies! A wonderfully old-fashioned song begins and ends the film. It reminisces about the joys of a day gone by.
Original, well-made black comic horror with a social conscience.
Looking for something different? Then look no further! HOMEBODIES is an absolute gem of a film that has unfortunately become difficult to find over the years. In fact, it's been released on a home viewing format in the States just one time - in 1984 - by Embassy Home Entertainment. Now that the tape is 25-years-old, I think it's about time someone rescued this one from complete obscurity and put it out on DVD already. Why we need a dozen special edition reissues of films like "Friday the 13th Part 20" and a great film like this is able to slip through the cracks is something I'll never quite understand. In Cincinnati, Ohio, a construction company is busy at work erecting a huge skyscraper. Across the street, the city has condemned a block of tenement buildings. One by one, the buildings are being demolished after its elderly citizens are dragged from the comfort of their homes to live in some colorless, sanitized new apartment home against their wishes. However, the tenants of one of the buildings set to be torn down are not going down without a fight. This is, after all, their home we're talking about. They've been living there 30 years. And since no one seems to care about them and their welfare, why should they return the favor? Mattie (Paula Trueman), who spends her days sitting by the construction site munching on prunes, witnesses a fatal accident and then conspires with her friends to rig similar accidents to delay the destruction of their home. One thing leads to another and before long they're resorting to stabbing a cold social worker and burying a wealthy land developer alive in wet cement! One could accuse the film of being far-fetched, but most dark comedies are, and the film manages to skillfully blend social drama, horror and black comedy together in an entertaining, thought-provoking and unique way. One of the big pluses here is that the plight of the low-income elderly is shown in a grim, though very realistic and plausible, light. These people ARE often bullied, pushed around and treated if they don't matter, so despite their murderous schemes, there's never a moment where we don't identify with, and sympathize for, the people involved. Another huge plus is the cast and level of characterization. Many genre filmmakers mistakenly believe the target audience for these films only want to see hot young things strutting their stuff, not a bunch of senior citizens. They're wrong. Here we get six veteran character actors capable of adding those intangibles to their roles that only come with experience. Trueman as the spunky, unpredictable and increasingly more unstable Mattie seems to be the centerpiece of the film and she does an excellent job. Just as good are Ian Wolfe as the building superintendent, Ruth McDevitt as his wife (also the conscience of the group), William Hansen as a widowed writer, blind Peter Brocco and Frances Fuller as a wig-wearing agoraphobic who still talks to her dead husband and hasn't left the building in 20 years. Each of the performers bring a human element to their role, and the characters aren't just tenants. They're created their own little microcosm in the building and each depend on one another in equal measure to simply get by. To disrupt their environment is to destroy their lives, so why should they care if a bunch of greedy big wigs or whoever else go down with them? Co-stars Douglas Fowley, Linda Marsh and veteran horror/sci-fi star Kenneth Tobey as the construction boss also deliver fine performances in less-sympathetic roles. Quirky, unique, thoughtful, very well-written, directed and acted on a modest budget; this independently-produced film is probably not going to be for all tastes, but for fans of both horror flicks and black comedies, I can't recommend this one enough. It's worth the search.
Brilliant and sick...
I was surprised at how clever and darkly humorous this film actually was. It's wonderfully cast, beautifully acted, and totally different from most movies out there. A group of ederly people find that they will go to any extreme to keep their apartment building from being torn down. Led by a their motivated, stop at nothing, leader Maddie they take out any obstacle that gets in their way. It has a surprise ending that I was shocked to see. A really great movie. If you want a strange, witty, twisted and funny movie definitly rent this. Unless you can find a resonably priced used copy, then you should definitly buy it!