Homecoming (2018)

Homecoming (2018) - Finland

Directed by: Esa Jussila

ABOUT THE FILM:

Homecoming, or Kotiinpaluu in Finnish, is the latest film from filmmaker Esa Jussila, who has graced the vibrant and thriving Finnish indie scene with incredibly gory and violent yet entertaining and well-made movies. Some of his best work includes stuff like Trans*, Parasite Quarantine and Goremageddon 1 and 2. He has another movie that looks great but I haven't seen yet, and that movie is They Rest in the North. Perhaps that'll make for a future review..

Anyway, Homecoming is Esa's latest short film that was made from 2016 to 2018. The movie tells the story of a group of career criminals who have given up on their devious occupation, leaving it dead and buried along with one of their former associates. The group of men try to go on with their lives, trying to come to terms with the fact that they'll have to live with their crimes. But one night, they get a call from the associate they believed to be dead, and things turn ugly fast..

REVIEW:

I admit that I've been following the director, Esa Jussila's work for a couple of years now and have always loved his output. His movies are endlessly entertaining on top of being incredibly well-made, and I never thought that Goremageddon and Goremageddon 2 could ever be topped.

But then I saw Homecoming.

Wow. This movie left me dumbstruck, and in the best way possible, because this movie is damn near perfect. Whereas Esa's other films like the Goremageddon duology and Parasite Quarantine had endless over-the-top and fun gore with a fun story, Homecoming drives itself on telling an engaging and powerful story that's aided by the brutality rather than built around it. The movie doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but it does an incredible job telling the story and developing its characters through its visuals. As the movie progresses, everything slowly begins to unfold and to tie together and the ends in a massive punch to the gut. On top of the top-notch writing and screenplay, the actors play their characters flawlessly and give chilling performances.

One thing I've seen in a lot of thrillers and crime films is that the music sometimes can be very overbearing to the point where it ruins the atmosphere. Not this time. The music is added in subtly and when it kicks in, it matches the scene perfectly and further builds the atmosphere. The movie may not be a splatterfest, and the gore may be sparing, but the gore that we do get is downright brutal; it's executed so beautifully and the special effects are realistic, compared to the cartoonish gore in Jussila's previous films.

But the real show-stealer in this movie is the visuals. This movie builds an incredible atmosphere with its lighting and its coloring. The lighting is gorgeous and the camera work is so smooth and sharply done; Homecoming is a very polished film from top to bottom. I have no idea what kind of budget the crew was working with, but they worked miracles with it when making this movie.

Homecoming is just further proof that the Finnish know their stuff when it comes to not only making horror movies, but making movies in general. I still haven't seen a movie from this country that I didn't enjoy, and would definitely like to review more of them in the future. As fun as German splatter can be, Finnish gore and horror films may be over-the-top also but are usually better-made and have excellent production values. Finland, my hat's off to you. And I thank Esa Jussila for making such a great movie.

I can not recommend this movie enough. Please watch it.

RELEASES:

-Homecoming was released on DVD in Canada by D.I.Y. Productions in 2021. The extras consist of a behind-the-scenes featurette, and two bonus short films called Rajalinja and Pussy With An Uzi. This DVD release was limited to 25 copies. 

-The movie is available to watch on YouTube for free, with subtitles! You can watch the movie here.