Spoilers are not getting the door.

We’re once again going all in to an experimental pseudo-documentary essay. This one is not a neutral piece, it actually has a clear agenda from the beginning. Now whether you agree with it or not is not as important as if it actually conveys the horror genre. I do believe at least it has some valid points to make, but it’s also a rather effective film at getting under your skin even without a protagonist to follow. I think I hear the door, you should get that.

Home Invasion (2023) is written and directed by Graeme Arnfield. It is comprised of a narration of events that led to home security concepts. Security doorbells and video camera services are painted through the lens of exposing the surveillance culture. We even learn of the industrialist era and the adoption of machines leaving manual labour employees without jobs, as well as the counter-movement of the luddites opposing it. All the narration is told with visuals shown through a fish-eye camera lens and recordings of incidents at the door such as troublemakers, deliveries, couriers, package thieves and mentally unstable people in general.

There is no clear protagonist we’re following here, but there’s always a sense of unease heightened by a background soundtrack that keeps the audience in constant tension. Popular clips of known movies dealing with home invaders are shown through that circular cut-out just to keep the same claustrophobic feeling we’re seeing everything through the peephole of a door.

Recommended for fans of experimental cinema. Documentary fans should also appreciate its craft to tell a story and cause discomfort in its viewers. Casual audiences should give it a chance. Worth a watch.

That will do for now.