Homebodies (1974)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

Six feisty old folks -- blind Peter Brocco, hard-working superintendent Ian Wolfe and his nagging wife Ruth McDermott, kindly writer William Hansen, agoraphobic eccentric Frances Fuller and fierce, formidable old battle ax Paula Trueman -- refuse to leave their crumbling tenement building despite the fact that it's going to be demolished to make way for expensive high-rise apartment complexes. The extremely loyal, hidebound and resourceful over-the-hill group resort to murder so they can remain in their beloved brownstone, bumping off a condescending young woman social worker, a greedy jerk land developer and various hapless construction workers who are victims of random fatal "accidents."Director/co-writer Larry Yust, who also helmed the bang-up funky blaxploitation blast "Trick Baby," fashions this absorbingly off-kilter plot into a delightfully quirky and deadpan black comic horror oddity, skillfully alternating between shocking moments of brutal violence and inspired bits of uproarious wackiness in a deft, screwy, throwaway style which proves to be both amusingly nutty and occasionally quite unnerving in comparable measure. The murder set pieces are truly jolting and the climactic poky last reel paddle boat chase sequence is nothing short of brilliant. Better still, Yust shows a genuine warmth and compassion for the elderly, scoring points for his incisive critique of our society's gross disregard for senior citizens and how said elderly are among those luckless and powerless people who often don't benefit a bit from progress and urban renewal. Brocco, Wolfe, McDermott, Hansen, Fuller and especially the marvelously sassy and sprightly Trueman (who was also great as Sondra Locke's redoubtable granny in "The Outlaw Josey Wales") all give lively, colorful, thoroughly engaging and touchingly dignified performances as the shrewd, lethal, lovably stubborn and indomitable geriatric protagonists. Beautifully photographed in the rundown Cincinnati slums by Isidore Mankofsky, this splendidly singular and whimsical fright film tale of inner city blight and the resilience of the elderly rates as a definite fabulously off-beat and original must-see sleeper.

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!

Simply put, there's nothing to be gained from watching "Homebodies". It's not funny, it's not believable for a minute, it's not entertaining, and it moves (fittingly perhaps?) at the pace of a funeral. The blind guy is creepy, though. (*1/2)