Homestead (film)

Homestead” is a post-apocalyptic drama that follows ex-Green Beret Jeff Eriksson and his family as they escape to a fortified prepper compound called The Homestead after a nuclear bomb detonates in Los Angeles. As society collapses and chaos reigns, the residents of The Homestead must navigate internal conflicts and external threats to survive.

Homestead Review

Homestead is an interesting experiment from Angel Studios. Based on Jeff Kirkham’s best-selling book series Black Autumn, the film,  serves as an hour and fifty-minute introductory episode for what will soon be a series of the same name hosted on the Angel Studios platform.

Neal McDonough gives his usual quiet and confident performance, leading a cast of characters played by those with familiar faces if not names. Bailey Chase, who is best known for the Netflix series Longmire and a 12-episode stint on the early 2000s series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, co-stars as the jaded and struggling family man/ex-Green Beret tasked with keeping the Homestead safe from those who would destroy them, and possibly also from dissenting voices from within. Chase, an almost 30-year veteran of the small screen, fills his role nicely, imbuing him with an interesting mix of professional excellence and personal foibles. Most of the rest of the cast seems up to the task, with only one or two occasionally struggling to connect with some of the more intense emotional scenes or, more forgivably, some rare instances of uneven or unnatural dialogue.

There are some significant issues with plot and character consistency that detract from the overall quality, with important plot points depending on humans behaving like 80s movie cops. In other words, their behavior is entirely disconnected from how people actually act. Don’t get me wrong, no one is using a cutting torch to open a glass door, but, for example, there are some fundamental issues with McDonough’s character’s psychology. On the one hand, he is both the ubermensch of preppers, with a massive compound, hydroponics gardens, armed special forces security, functioning hospital, a doomsday arsenal, etc., yet isn’t emotionally prepared to protect his compound from incursions and puts the creation of rules of engagement on the backburner even after there is an incident that results in someone’s death.

The location of the Homestead compound is another fundamental flaw that viewers will simply have to accept and put aside in order to enjoy the show. Located at the top of a hill overlooking a city with a (quickly starving) population easily in the hundreds of thousands, anybody who war-gamed the end of American civilization to the extent that someone in McDonough’s character’s position would have would quickly come to the conclusion that the Homestead needs to be moved to a less visible, more easily secured location or that embattlements would be nearly as important than food and water. That said, its placement is for plot convenience and to provide the program with its antagonists.

These annoyances aside, the program has a compelling premise, high production value, and enough quality performers to warrant a watch, especially if you’re looking for your next streaming series.

WOKE ELEMENTS

DEI Catburglar

• Like a thief in the night, the existence of DEI initiatives and culture continues to rob the few black people in this show of the unassailable truth that they were cast for any reason other than talent. However, my guess is that Kearran Giovanni, who plays Tara Eriksson, and whose Homestead character’s ethnicity isn’t explicitly stated in the books, was cast thanks to a long stint on the TV series Criminal Minds, and her fictional family was then cast around her race rather than as a political statement.
  • Giovanni gives one of the program’s most natural performances.