Twins Red (Emma Ho) and Blue (Ian Ho) have been raised in an artificial environment which looks like a fairly dilapidated mid-20th century home – it has no exterior windows (just light panels) and seems to be a machine designed to support the children … the fridge and food cupboards restock automatically, waste is disposed of when sacks are thrown in a dark cellar and the mantra ‘garbage garbage garbage’ uttered, tapes of a kids’ puppet show called Barn are delivered regularly to play on a ‘tube’, and there are regular ‘Noels’ with a decorated Christmas tree and presents. Red and Blue pass the time playing games, though there’s an issue with catchball – Blue has suffered a hand injury some time in the past and isn’t quite as dextrous as Red. Occasionally, the twins talk with .Papa – voiced by director Casey Walker – a disembodied speaker who lives behind a locked door and delivers instructions, warnings and slightly too-bland reassurances. One Noel, the children – who seem to be about fifteen – are given a present they’re not sure about, a silent bald androgyne (Ess Hödlmoser) they call ‘Pal’. Papa tells them to take care of Pal, but the newcomer with the shifting pronouns is a difficult presence – intriguing for Red, who takes them to be a her, disturbing for Blue, who resents the ‘it’ coming between him and his sister. What does ‘take care of’ actually mean? Pal also brings a tape of a more disturbing episode of Barn. The twins’ world starts breaking down – partly by the apparent design of the unseen Papa, partly because of their own actions, partly thanks to the third wheel.
Scripted by Adrian Murray and Marcus Sullivan, Home Bodies – no connection to the 1974 thriller about murderous old folks – is a science fiction film in the tradition of Cube, Level 16 and Vivarium. The enclosed environment is richly imagined – quite a bit of the backstory and even the premise can be inferred from details of art direction – and the confinement angle allows for a microfocus on small telling moments. Red takes care to divide a bottle of ‘milky’ equally when pouring drinks for her and her brother. When he pours, Blue gives himself 80%. Red gives up her bed to Pal and sleeps on couch cushions. Blue seethes with resentment. Red is protective of Blue, ceding ground when she would prefer to rest but he wants to play catchball – but also just irritated enough with him to throw a ball too hard and show up his comparatively minor handicap. When Red enjoys playing with Pal, who is seemingly as impassive as a doll, Blue just wishes the newcomer was gone like the garbage – though there are hints that Pal really is dangerous, sent by the obviously-withholding and by no means benign Papa. When things really go wrong, Blue’s instinct is to deny his part in the catastrophe while Red takes more than her fair share of blame.
The Ho twins are both excellent, essentially carrying the dramatic weight on their own. Walker, director also of Ithaqua, gets the most out of the one big intricate set, prowling through the rooms. Almost certainly a story conceived during lockdown, this hinges on an elemental difference between someone who wants things to stay as they are or better still the way they used to be and someone who senses the rut they’re in and hopes for a wider world beyond a locked door.