It's a few weeks before the Presidential election, and at the same time, war is going on overseas. When the Republican Commander-In-Chief appears on national television, he wishes, infront of the cameras, that those who died defending their country could come back to life again, return, and say how proud they were to serve their country. After that it doesn't take long before the dead soldiers starts coming back to life, zombiefied, but ready to vote. Will they be celebrated like heroes, or the opposite, and what will happen if they don't get to vote?
Homecoming separates itself a bit from the other episodes in the Masters of Horror series, since this is a story that is just not another horror flick, but actually is about something that a lot of people can relate to. Something that has been a big subject now for quite some time. Although it's not like in the real world, as this one has a little twist to it, but it still works as a reminder to what has happened. Bad thing though is probably that the 'right' people will never see it.
First off, I'm not a very political person. Politics has a tendency of being quite boring, but on the other hand, there are issues you just can't avoid, that might directly affect you, someone you know or whatever, you get my drift. What happens in Homecoming is a good thing, that anyone from any country can enjoy and not just Americans. Since where-ever you may live in the world, you're bound to have heard about it, (not the movie itself, but the actual events of course). Still you don't need to have a political interest or anything like that to be able to enjoy Homecoming, you can just watch it as another decent horror flick.
The movie is delivered by Joe Dante who has made such movies like Piranha, Gremlins 1-2 etc and I must say he did a good job directing it. At times it feels like you're watching a news program/debate on tv since it has some of that stuff in it, as well at it deals with the war and the soldiers abroad that we all know of. I was a bit afraid when I first started to watch the movie that it would be too political and too preachy, but luckily it was not. Instead it felt like a good satire with some horror elements in it as well. It's not scary, but it's still definitely a horror flick.
It deals with politics though and not just undead soldiers. We basically get to follow a guy named David Murch who works for the president and who would like to work under him for another four years. He goes on tv, and when an upset woman who has lost her son in the war is on the air for a brief moment, David has to do a spin and so he wishes that the soldiers could come back to life again. His wish comes true, and suddenly zombie soldiers starts showing up everywhere. But they don't wanna eat flesh, instead all they wanna do is to vote (and not for David's team) and as soon as they've done that, they die. David team up with author Jane Cleaver and political man Kurt Rand, and together they try to set some spin to this whole event to not let it affect the presidential race.
Homecoming is of course Anti-Bush, and even if it's not too political, it still has a little too much politics in it that shine through a bit too much at times. It's not a big thing though, and the movie's still absolutely enjoyable. The pacing is good, and the story develops in a good way. Also the ending wasn't really a let-down either, and I think if it would've been, it would all have turned to crap. Just wrote about Chocolate from the Masters of Horror series as well, and while that movie had a horribly shitty ending, it had a lot to offer till the actual end. With Homecoming it was a different story and the fact that it stayed ok with no real let-downs all the way through, made it come out looking slightly above decent.
If you're extremely commited to politics, I guess it sucks if your views are on the opposite side than to what the movie has to offer. Other than that, if you're not interested in politics or just a tiny bit interested, I think you should be ok. I know I was, for most of it anyway. It's a decent flick, and there are zombies, unfortunately there are not any real gore, and the movie is more focused on delivering black humour than actual horror, which is something it was very light on. Nothing really special, but still worth a look.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Homecoming
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Joe Dante
WRITING CREDITS: Sam Hamm, Dale Bailey
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Thea Gill, Jon Tenney, Terry David Mulligan
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 59 min
RATING: 6/10
Masters of Horror (S01E06): Homecoming Website/IMDB Click here
Masters of Horror (S01E06): Homecoming Trailer Click here
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