“Forever Home” (2023) [GenreBlast Film Festival]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s Sean Oliver’s haunted house comedy, Forever Home.

Synopsis

A young couple — Sammy Lideen as Jules and Drew Leatham, who cowrote the screenplay with director Sean Oliver, as Ryan — unwittingly spends all their money on a new home only to discover a terrible secret that puts not only their lives, but their afterlives at risk.

The Good

Joseph: If you are in the mood for a heartwarming horror comedy, you will be hard pressed to find a recent one as charming as Forever Home. Relationships between lovers, between family members, and between friends are as important a component here as the supernatural elements. Lideen and Leatham have fine chemistry as the young couple who have just unknowingly invested in a haunted house, and they are aided by a terrific supporting cast that includes Cody Hunt as Jules’ free-living brother Max, Alison Campbell as a psychic for hire, Shelly Boucher as eccentric neighbor Shelly, and Colleen Hartnet as an anxious real estate agent. The screenplay by Oliver and Leatham aims for smiles and the feels much more than full-on frights, and that approach works wonderfully well here. Oliver’s direction invests the film with a spirited (no pun intended) energy.

Mike: I’m going to admit up front that I was not in a great mood when I sat down to watch Forever Home - it was just one of those days where the doldrums take over and all you want to do is escape to someplace else. Was a comedy what the doctor ordered? In this case, to a degree, yes. Oliver and co-writer Drew Leatham have created an offbeat, quirky tale of a haunted house that does an excellent job of presenting a comedy with elements of horror that all gels together very well. Add in the adult members of the cast and there is a very well put together film here. The soon-to-be-married homeowners played by Sammie Lideen and Drew Leatham have great chemistry making them a very believable and likable couple. Her brother, the “next door neighbor ghost”, and the psychic that they call in to help with the ghost problem are a little over the top, but not too much that they are annoying. In fact the exaggerated performances probably help in producing a good balance of character-types.

The humor is consistent and aside from the plot involving a haunted house and some ghosts, the horror elements are minimal and not scary at all. This should appeal to those who are squeamish as well as families with kids old enough to handle a couple of “bad words”.

The Bad

Joseph: The comedy can be a bit broad at times, with a few over-the-top performances added for good measure, but the occasional (literal) toilet humor, stoner gags, and scenery chewing are fortunately small bumps in the cinematic road that Forever Home traverses. Those are really my only quibbles with the film and with humor being subjective, opinions will vary for every viewer.

Mike: While consistent, the humor felt a bit flat to me. There were no real laugh-out-loud moments and only a few chuckles, which isn’t to say it wasn’t funny because it was, but in a way that elicits a smile instead of a laugh. Of course, humor covers a massively broad spectrum and what people find funny differs from person to person and even from day to day, so take that knock with a grain of salt.

Some of the performances were, as mentioned, a bit over the top and could be a turn off to some people but doubtfully less than those that are not impressed by any of the child actors. I don’t want to come across as a bully by picking on children, so I’ll leave my comments about them to myself.

The Verdict

Joseph: Forever Home is a fine independent feature that deserves to find a wide audience. With solid production values, keen and balanced direction, a screenplay as touching as it is funny, and a game cast giving all-in performances, this fun film gets a strong recommendation from me.

Mike: This is a fine movie for those looking for a little cinematic chicken soup, as I was the day I watched it. The story is fine, the characters and - for the most part - the actors are all entertaining, and there’s a nice, consistent tone of humor from start to finish. We both here at GBV have lamented some films that have come across our paths as either failing at being decent family-friendly or missing the opportunity to be that type of film, zigging when they should have zagged. While you’re not going to shiver in fright or bellow with laughter, Forever Home DOES have just the right amount of everything to make for a very enjoyable experience.

Forever Home, from Sean Oliver and Third Productions, screened as part of GenreBlast Film Festival 2023, which ran August 31–September 2, 2023, in Winchester, Virginia. For more information, visit https://www.genreblast.com/.

Forever Home