Now, these films on TV were not the gory slasher psycho-serial-killer fare you see today on virtually every channel. Real X-rated stuff was strictly the reserve of the cinema. They comprised, on the whole, black and white '20s and '30s melodramas; Bela Lugosi; bats on visible knicker-elastic; pretty tame-looking wolves ("they arrrre the childrrrrren of the night!"); horribly disfigured madmen dangling screaming women over vats of hot wax; Hitchcock suspenses; lunatic-genius scientists gone to the bad... you get the picture. They suggested more than they showed, and that thrill of having the source of terror suggested by melodramatic reaction-shots, eerie music, and elaborately creepy mise-en-scene is what gives them lasting resonance. They don't make them like that any more. Well, most of them don't — but I was delighted to find myself transported back in time by Heading Home.
It is an innocent film by today's standards, but with just enough visceral gore and a strong hint of something you really wouldn't want to look at, to create a pleasing frisson. The film is knowingly unsophisticated in its theatrical presentation of character and narrative, giving a true retro feel; yet, despite having been shot on mini-DV with a micro-budget, it provides much in the way of expressive - even painterly - cinematography and editing, and moments of great suspense.
Of course it takes more now to horrify me, but I was affected enough by the special effects by Joe Renz, Ben Jurin, and Jane Rose - particularly at the gory climax of the film - to feel not a little unnerved, even nauseated; but, as of old, with a big grin on my little face.
Jane Rose is a member of Willamsburg, Brooklyn’s Reel Sweet Betty Film Collective.
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