Review of Masters of Horror 6: Joe Dante's "Homecoming".

Left:Joe Dante doing his thing. Left:A Zombie talking about rights.













Out of the rest of the bunch that are enlisted in the "Masters Of Horror", the few that talk about using horror as an outlet that relates tot he current events in politics. Romero is known for his social commentary and still is feels like he didn't push it enough. It's there but it still is in the confines of a zombie film, which is not bad, but it feels like Romero wants to say more. Stuart Gordon has talked a lot about it and feels like it's about time horror expands into the realm of political issues. I think that Stuart Gordon has that film in him someday, at the H.P. Lovecraft film festival he talked about another "RE-Animator" sequel. Where Herbert West is in the White House, kinda like "Re-Animator in the White House", I'll see it. Heck, I even own the other two sequels to the "RE-Animator".
But the rest of the bunch like John Landis, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, as they all talk about it Joe Dante is the one to actually display that ambition. Joe Dante is back in the field of horror since the "Howling", and it is awesome. Before I get into this review, or just criticism of the film. Let me start talking about Joe Dante, I love the man and respect everything he does, I was heavily influenced by Joe Dante(and who wasn't). When people thought that he was going soft after the 'Howling", which was a werewolf film of bold and brilliance. After the "Howling", he started doing kid fares that people thought that he sold out. I never took it that way because like me, I was raised with 'Gremlins", "Explorers", "Innerspace","The Burbs","Small Soldiers",'Matinee", which was an homage to William Castle. I loved the guy so much that I use to watch that show that he produced back in the early 90's called "Eerie Indiana". I always look back on those films because they left a mark, it presented Joe DAnte's love of movies. It was like, he wasn't just making kid fluff, but kid films that he would want to see as a kid. It was like putting his whole childhood in those movies, growing with Mario Bava, William CAstle, Edgar G. Ulmer, Herbert Strock(R.I.P) and Val Lewton. His films had so many different references that opened my eyes to so many different movies. Thank you Joe DAnte. This doesn't sound a review, it sounds more like a love letter, but I have so much respect for him and his films. And as I grew up and actually did research on this man that supplied most of my childhood, I found out that he was a film critic for a fanzine for B-Movies or Drive-in flicks. The guy was a huge cinephile and I always got that from watching his films. Lately, in high school he has influenced me to be a critic. I have been reading his criticism, because 'Video Watchdog" has been diggin up his old reviews from his fanzine and their apart of a section called 'Joe Dante's Fleapit Flashbacks". Joe Dante is great filmmaker and critic that feels like when he crafts his work he gives it a critics touch, his latest for the 'Master of Horror" proves my point.
Now on to the review of the "Homecoming", set in a 2008 presidential election where a Bush-like president is running. The whole short is not about him, but rather the conservative loyals that run his campaign, including an Ann Coulter-like character and Joe Dante alumni Robert Picardo(I'm surprised another Joe Dante alumni, Dick Miller, is not in this) playing a Karl Rove-like character. The whole premise is that corpses from the war are coming back from the dead. Instead of the zombies out eating the brains of the conservatives that put them in the war................They do something way worse, they vote. The whole movies goes into the debate if their allowed to vote and the whole story is narrated by this one conservative that accidentally started this incident by a wish. It's funny, I think that's what Joe Dante wanted it to be but he doesn't get preachy or biased, because he seems to make fun of everybody. The one line I like is the Ann Coulter-like character talking about the zombies saying," They have the brains of liberals". That's some funny stuff, Dante really hit his mark with this and has really started something. And as a critic Dante doesn't go into the zombie cliche's, that make zombie films so entertaining, instead he focuses on the humans dealing with this fiasco, and the zombie are just as human as anybody else. As the film not being biased, the reason why I say that is because it told through the conservative's campaign managers who are struggling to put there president in office, but can't because of these zombies voting against him. The one thing I noticed is that Joe Dante shows Karl Roves to be actually a smart guy, even through this whole zombie thing is happening, he's coming up with ways to re-use dead soldiers for the war. I ain't no conservative and really don't like Karl Roves, but the man must be smart to put Bush twice in office. Robert Picardo, who plays this Karl Rove-like character, hits his mark on every line and makes it so believable. Robert Picardo is an awesome character actor, his character is not over-the-top, but just on it.
Joe Dante doesn't relegate to the zombie gore that makes the genre so fun, but instead goes for something more intense than a zombie eating rib cage or anything. And while it's all told through conservatives side, which I fine to be more fun rather told by the liberals. For short amount of time it wraps up into a beautiful elegy that just like all of his films as a kid for me, leaves a mark. Dante is back, and really started something that might open a trend of personal horror. WAY TO GO PLAYER! This Aliye Nyoka saying Goodnight and Peace Out!