Safer At Home (2021) Review

Safer At Home opens with footage of President Trump announcing to the nation that there’s an ongoing war against coronavirus. Fast forward to July 2021 and an announcement on the CND news service that a second stream of the virus has hit. Fast forward to January 2022 and a nationwide death toll of 12.3 million. Fast forward to August 2022 with the 31.2 million now having perished, the Covid 22-C variant running rampant, curfews in effect and the country living what life it has behind closed doors and through video calls.

It’s here that we pick up one of these video calls as a group of friends gathers to recreate the Vegas get-together they’d planned but never managed to realise. Yes, it’s a thriller for the Zoom generation and we’re probably going to get a number of these in the near future so strap yourselves in and hope your broadband connection holds up.

One of the advantages of this set-up is that the cast can all be introduced in one go as they appear in their particular quadrant of the screen. Your roll call is as follows: lovely dovey couple Jen and Evan (Jocelyn Hudon and Dan J. Johnson); lovey-dovey couple Ben and Liam (Adwin Brown and Daniel Lobaire); recently paired-up couple Mia and Oliver (Emma Lahana and Michael Kupisk); and Harper (Alisa Allapach), because it wouldn’t be the same if there wasn’t one singleton in the group.

After the intriguing and ominous reportage of those first few minutes, the first act settles down into a get to know you session involving our online group and there are the usual seeds planted in the various interactions. For instance, Jen and Harper know something everyone else doesn’t. Mia is treated with less trust because she’s the relative newcomer to the circle of friends and everyone really liked Oliver’s previous partner. So far, so standard.

Oliver has thoughtfully sent the others a parcel to get them into the faux Vegas mood. This is initially derided by all and the tacky resort-themed trinkets don’t exactly go down a storm until the surprise package in the package is revealed. There are pills there – small pills, manufactured in Japan, procured by a guy Oliver can trust. “So…drugs?” says Ben. Er, yes.

There is, of course, the usual um-ing and ah-ing about whether taking the pills is such a good idea but any reticence is pushed aside fairly quickly, mind-altering substances are consumed, there’s laughter, dancing and then the suggestion of playing the game which always causes no trouble whatsoever in movies: Never Have I Ever. Almost immediately, someone reveals a hitherto unknown sexual encounter while in college and the atmosphere in at least one-quarter of the call turns frosty, escalating into a situation which takes a shocking turn and has everyone questioning where their loyalties lie.

Potentially a decent stepping off point for the rest of the tale, it’s here where the issues with Safer At Home begin in earnest. The characters are not especially interesting or engaging and for the first twenty-five minutes that’s not a problem in itself, as long as they’re thrown into a struggle which reveals hidden depths or uncovers motivations which the audience didn’t expect. However, and this is purely my reading of it, the viewer is invited to follow someone whose actions and general aggressiveness cause something hideous to happen and then spends the rest of the movie attempting to avoid the consequences, while his friends enable his thoroughly questionable behaviour.

Even then, the shocking nature of the fallout should make for some decent suspense, especially as the script puts the main protagonist into as many sticky situations as it can and even if you thoroughly dislike him – and, make no mistake, I thoroughly disliked him – there’s as much tension to be mined from hoping that someone is going to make a mistake and get caught as hoping that someone will use all of their wits to get away with it.

Again, this doesn’t follow through on its promise. Sequences in which our anti-hero is being pursued don’t land because it’s never made particularly clear if the curfew squads or the cops are closing in on them, opting instead for long sequences comprising of close-ups of the character running while somehow keeping themselves in frame on their phone’s camera by means of a selfie stick.

It’s moments like this which, unfortunately, take the viewer out of the film. This is a shame because, to be fair, the world building is rather good. The odd lines of dialogue about Central Park being a giant, makeshift hospital, and Harper’s frustration at the constant open/close/open/close cycle of lockdown add flavour without needing huge effects sequences and a glimpse of the chaotic downtown areas, complete with its tent cities and an air of anarchy rumbling in the background, hint at what this movie could have been.

Unfortunately, for every smart decision made here there’s one which negates it in the most frustrating fashion, most notably when the score kicks in. Is there someone with a synth following these people around? If that’s the case, they need to switch it off before it attracts attention. Also, everyone here is intent on capturing every moment of their lives, including the point at which Ben insists that he and Liam should have a talk and then take their laptop to the bathroom to have their heart to heart in front of everyone else in the chat.

If that wasn’t enough, the various windows within the chat are thoughtfully lit and often perfectly framed. There are no technical gremlins in the mix, which would be a minor miracle considering the hammering the internet would be taking with everyone being forced to stay at home during the evenings. This kind of detail doesn’t ruin the experience totally but it also makes it much more difficult to become totally immersed in the proceedings.

The final act throws in a rug pull which is a) not entirely unexpected and b) garners not one iota of extra sympathy for the main character, who doesn’t come across as a victim of circumstance, sent out of their mind on drugs and acting completely out of the ordinary. There’s a line in the script which indicates just how capable they are of violence and it seems as through the drugs just allowed them to cross that line with what they thought was impunity at the time.

The resolution does aim to land the biggest emotional blow possible and it succeeds on a visceral, fleeting level but given what’s gone before it’s difficult to be too affected by it, especially when it trowels on a ton of cliched dialogue and has one of the group being rather quick to forgive – almost completely ignore, as a matter of fact – worryingly dangerous behaviour far too easily, even in the face of ultimate tragedy.

Far more effective is the epilogue, which swings back to the early days of the pandemic and shows Version 1.0 of the group in more hopeful times as they talk about meeting up again and how they’re looking forward to their trip. It’s a pessimistic but powerful closer and it’s interesting how a whole lot of movie that doesn’t work is bookended by sequences which genuinely do.

Casting aside the issues with the main protagonist, Safer From Home didn’t work for me because it’s chock full of folks I had a hard time caring about. Occasionally the suspense works but for the most part you’re relying on non-diegetic musical cues suggesting an approaching menace you never see and the performances, while fine, never truly elevate that sense of escalating panic.

I’ll leave you with a question. Considering the times in which we’re living right now, do we need a pandemic-themed film this bleak and, I’d guess for some of us at least, this problematic? As technically proficient as Safer At Home is, it often doesn’t work as a piece of drama and although I felt uneasy as I watched it, it was more to do with my growing distaste for a genuinely unsympathetic central figure rather than atmospheric chills

Movie Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Trailer:

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Darren Gaskell

Darren is a writing machine, producing content for a range of channels. You can catch more of his content at The Strange Colour Of Deej's Reviews and The Horrocist. You can also follow him on Twitter.

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