Homebodies
1974's HOMEBODIES tells a sad and sadly timeless tale. Senior citizens, ignored and marginalized by an ever technologically developing society, find themselves ordered to vacate their apartments of several decades by developers who want to erect shiny new high rises with built in appliances. Their buildings deemed condemned, they are served notices by beauracratic minions who show little if any empathy. Employees such as this are trained not to get invested, to not be human.
Humanity is in fact in short supply in this movie, and not just from the evictors. You see, HOMEBODIES tells its solemn story with an edge, literally. A group of seniors, led by the feisty, cunning Mattie (Paula Trueman) will resort to murder to hold onto their beloved confines, domeciles saturated with memories not so easily discarded. Essentially, who these people are. Mattie's sister Miss Emily (Frances Fuller) keeps a place setting for her late husband and nightly tells him about her day, another in which she has not left her apartment. Mr. Loomis (Ian Wolfe) daily paints the trim outside because he believes he's still the superintendent. Late life adjustments aren't so smooth. Readers of this blog might recall that I had to put my 99 year old grandmother in a nursing home and the transition was bumpy at first.
But Mattie and co. ain't having it. She watches as a new skyscraper goes up a few blocks over, plotting ways to delay completion. This will include tampering with elevators and cables on steel gurters, leading to several deaths. And Miss Pollack (Linda Marsh), that young lady from the city who repeatedly tries to get this bunch out before the wrecking ball hits, is not safe either. Her death scene is one of the most disturbing I've seen lately. Even moreso is that of Mr. Crawford (Douglas Fowley) the developer of said new high rise. In a moment that demonstrates director/co-writer Larry Yust's deft balancing act between the melancholy and the macabre, Mrs. Loomis (Ruth McDevitt), feeling awful about her participation in the killing, pats the sweat off his head while he is drowning in cement, forever to be a part of his new building.
I was surprised at grim, brutal, and ruthless HOMEBODIES was at times. The film is laced with black humor, some of which might repel viewers. You won't forget that axe and shoe scene, I guarantee you. Yust's points are unmistakable and his horror/social drama/comedy is quite an unique experience. I'm not familiar with any other such story before or since told with a slasher mentality (though quite intelligent and insightful). There are individual moments that are as effective, as unbearably sad as anything I've ever seen. I might carp that perhaps Mattie was just a murderous hag even before her home was threatened, as she shows little devotion to the building itself. But upon reflection she is just fiercely protective of her aged posse. She has a steely resolve as if she were a mini mafiosa.
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