Written and Directed by Will Wernick
Starring Jocelyn Hudon, Emma Lahana, Alisa Allapach
Runtime 1 hour 22 minutes
In theaters and on digital Feb 26

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

If there is one thing to be said about the pandemic and the toll it has taken on us, is that it has made folks pursue interesting creative outlets. Some of which do fictionalize the very real situation in which we are all in. This includes the Shudder streaming hit Host and lesser-known titles like Corona Zombies. So it is no great surprise that studio horror would sink its teeth into the current crisis to try and make some money which is how you get a film like Safer at Home from director Will Wernick. He is the same director that brought you films like No Escape about a social media personality and Escape Room based on everyone’s favorite pre-COVID craze. 

Safer at Home takes place in 2022, in a world where worse strains of COVID have kept people in lockdown for years and the death toll in the U.S. reaches the millions. There are now police-enforced curfews and those who break those rules can end up in “detention centers”. During all this, a group of friends meets for a video chat to celebrate Evan’s (Dan J. Johnson) birthday. To make things more interesting Oliver (Michael Kupisk) sent drugs to all of them so they could have a crazy night in. But things take a turn for the worst when drugs and discussions of the past culminate in a horrifying accident. Now that the whole group has witnessed the event, even though they are all separate they must deal with the fallout and see it through till the end. 

At first glance, this felt like it could be a fun/bad horror film in the vein of Host. However, even a run time of 82 minutes is far too long for a film taking place exclusively on Zoom. It is possible this could have worked potentially as a short film but it is ultimately a boring story that does not have nearly enough plot. As a filler, they add passing comments about drama each member has dealt with in their past that ultimately have very little to do with the story at large. In the end, you are just left with a bunch of people staring at each other for long periods of time. Even this could have worked if the characters were slightly more compelling and exciting. Frankly, all of them were annoying and it was hard to feel any real emotional connection to any of them. That is except for Ben played by Adwin Brown who is perhaps the only rational character in the entire film. 

The other glaring problem is that the film is so steeped in the reality we are all dealing with, yet has no clear message. We are bombarded with clips of Trump and medical professionals talking about the increasing death toll, which truly makes the film triggering at the start. But then it is very unclear if the film is a conservative horror story of a lockdown or if it is simply misguided liberalism. While not every movie needs to have some sort of clear social message, one that is this engrained in social issues really should. With so many real clips of the former president, police brutality, and discussions around the vaccine it seems a little sleazy to have no clear message. Especially with the controversial and triggering ending this film ultimately has.

While it is important for folks to have realistic expectations about when the pandemic will be “over” and when things will get “back to normal” it is not necessarily fair to make people feel hopeful with things like the vaccines coming out. This is essentially what this film is doing, on top of unnecessary fear-mongering which quite frankly is the last thing we all need right now. While there are interesting stories filmmakers can tell about this weird time in all of our lives this is not one of them. 

Although this reviewer wishes there was something that I could say about the film that is somewhat positive, there was really nothing even remotely interesting or fun about this film. So while we all continue to quarantine why not try giving something else a shot.