Michael Fairbanks
Casey Walker’s Home Bodies, which premiered at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival, is perhaps the most winningly thrifty entry in the festival so far. The film takes place in a small automated bunker where two children have spent their entire lives. Despite the microbudget, this setting is beautifully designed and deeply disconcerting. That unease pulsates through the excellent first act, which plays as though a pair of Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids found themselves confined in one of the deceptively friendly bomb shelters from the Fallout video game and TV franchise.
We meet Blue (Ian Ho) and Red (Emma Ho), who were born in captivity. We watch as they go through their odd daily routine. They wake up, watch a strange farm animal puppet TV show, and amuse themselves with silly games. While playing “catch ball,” Red accidentally breaks a window. This angers the disembodied voice of “Papa,” who decides that it is time for them to take on some more responsibility. Enter the nude-colored and silent automaton Pal (Ess Hödlmoser), who is gifted to them underneath the tree of their “noel” celebration. Red is far more accepting of Pal than Blue, but both become suspicious of foul play when more brutally violent tapes start getting delivered to their TV room. Pal also proves to be an elusive playmate, and when she goes missing, Red and Blue discover new, nefarious parts of the prison they call home as Home Bodies continues.
The bunker is a beautifully realized setting. It’s muted and sterile but has just enough inviting touches to believe that Red and Blue haven’t totally lost their marbles. The dark hallways and ominous flashing light that “Papa” speaks through clearly indicate that they cannot leave. However, the living room is full of colorful furniture, and I’m sure that they enjoyed the little puppet TV show at one time. That show has an eerie quality reminiscent of Casper Kelly’s Buddy, although Home Bodies cannot even dream of approaching those delirious highs.
The Ho siblings are talented young performers who sell the personalities of these odd, sheltered adolescents without overdoing it. Their bickering feels completely natural. Walker was wise to cast a real brother and sister. Of the two, Emma shows a bit more emotional range, but Blue doesn’t end up getting much more to do than grow increasingly anxious and angry towards the whole predicament. Meanwhile, Ess Hödlmoser displays solid robotic body language but is never called upon to do more than stare at these kids with vacant eyes. Pal is just as offputting as intended, but a lot is left on the table in terms of where she came from.
That lack of satisfaction is indicative of Home Bodies as a whole. After the first act sets up all of these intriguing possibilities, the film evolves into little more than a long game of hide and seek. Red and Blue meander their way through the same argument multiple times and get so hung up on Pal that they never really shift into escape mode. Home Bodies would’ve been far more fun as a prison escape picture in which Red, Blue, and Pal come together to outsmart Papa and figure out what lies beyond their cage. Instead, they show relatively little agency and only start to get under the surface when the film has only a precious few minutes remaining. Once we do find out what’s happening, it’s so absurdly dystopian that it almost feels lazy. Casey Walker clearly didn’t want to risk a more elaborate film, so he defaults to making our characters’ circumstances impossible to overcome.
Even so, Walker shows a great deal of potential as a filmmaker. He knows how to set an imposing atmosphere, even if some of the aesthetic aspects feel a bit derivative. The camerawork by Bryn McCashin is expressive, taking full advantage of our confined setting as the kids race through it looking for answers. The handful of jump scares are well placed, and nothing is ever too graphic. This seems intended to be a gateway horror flick for kids and teens, and as such, it’s far more slick and serious than most entertainment they get “treated” to.
Home Bodies is a playful and occasionally very effective jaunt through these kids’ unsettling lives. It lacks a bit of bite, never really wanting to delve into any serious commentary about automated devices raising children. It’s fine to make a genre movie that is just full of obstacles, but Casey Walker never really delivers those either. After a while, we’re running down the same three hallways looking for Pal as we make our way towards an underwhelming conclusion. Even so, it would not be surprising to see Walker again. Studios should be encouraged to consider him for any creepy kids movies they have brewing to ride this current wave of horror mega hits.
