by Pat Frickey

Three movies at the film festival this year feature one of almost everyone’s greatest subliminal fears: home invasion. So the faint of heart should be aware of what they will be viewing before buying a ticket for any of the following films.

Suburbicon has received the most attention, perhaps due to the George Clooney effect. Matt Damon and Julianna Moore star in this very dark film (See: Shelly’s Review). It takes place in the ‘50s in the States. While neighbors are first haranguing then attacking a peaceful black family, simultaneously, right next door, the respectable white folks are self-destructing.

The Killing of the Sacred Deer is subdued, suppressed violence, at least at the beginning of the film. Heart surgeon Stephen (Colin Farrell) and his ophthalmologist wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) are two very cool customers living out the American Dream until sixteen-year-old Martin (Barry Keoghan) comes for a visit. Their home invasion is not the standard variety, but the effect is just as sinister.

In Us and Them working class Danny (Jack Roth) is an angry young man in today’s Britain. Set with a Brexit backdrop, class divisions are greater than ever. He and his two mates decide to stage a home invasion and kick off a revolution by live streaming it on the web. What begins as almost comic idealistic activism soon morphs into a Clockwork Orange reboot.