Well, you’ve got to admit, any movie that starts off with some panting and stumbling for the stairs could definitely qualify as one weird movie. It’s doubly interesting when you find out that “Heading Home” is based on a short story by Ramsey Campbell, whose horror resume is out the door and into the street.
Based on the Campbell story of the same title from the book “Alone With the Horrors,” the short has got something of a Lovecraftian feel to it as a scientist, operating inexplicably out of his home (or possibly a boarding house) has several unpleasant secrets locked up in a back room. Eventually, these will come back to haunt him in a dose of irony so thick it can be used for building material.
I have to admit, they definitely hit you all at once with this–I doubt Campbell’s original was quite this taut and rapid-paced–but I can’t help but wonder if just maybe they went a little too fast. There are bits in here, possibly intended for character development, that will come off a little confusing until you get to the very end, where they will start to make sense in a rather tenuous fashion. I still don’t really know–doubly difficult since I haven’t read the original Campbell–what the director was going for.
I just have guesses. And if guesses are good enough for you, then so too is “Heading Home.”
