Forever Home (2023) Review
Forever Home (2023) Review
Settle down with Forever Home for wonderfully wacky award-winning paranormal chiller, from director Sean Oliver (Imaginary Bullets, Natural Promotion) in his feature debut. The new haunted house comedy is set to arrive on UK digital 20 April from Miracle Media.
Excited to begin their new life together, couple Jules (Sammie Lideen – Better from Within) and Ryan (Drew Leatham – Goblin II) spend their life savings on a new home, only to discover it’s already inhabited by ghosts.
Fed up with annoying apparitions running riot, a phantom violinist disturbing their sleep and blood cascading from the shower, the couple decide enough is enough and invite psychic medium Meg (Alison Campbell) to dispel their otherworldly roommates.
But when the séance takes a sinister turn, they get locked inside and discover their griping ghouls were no match for a new evil entity at play who not only puts their lives in danger, but their afterlives too.
Forever Home arrives burdened by an air of inflated praise, the sort often generated by well-meaning friends, family, and collaborators eager to bolster a film’s reputation. Unfortunately, the finished product struggles to justify such enthusiasm.
At its core, the film attempts to blend supernatural elements with comedy, yet the tonal balance rarely lands. One particularly grating presence is the psychic character, whose constant, exaggerated interjections quickly become tiresome. The film leans heavily—and repeatedly—into this heightened style, resulting in an experience that feels overextended and, at times, overwhelming.
Some viewers have described the film as “funny and heartwarming,” even suggesting that more horror films should follow this template. That sentiment feels misplaced. While genre hybrids can succeed, Forever Home never convincingly marries its comedic ambitions with its horror framework. The humour seldom connects, and the emotional beats lack the sincerity needed to resonate.
There is, however, a degree of goodwill to be found in the cast. The performers are clearly committed, throwing themselves fully into their roles. Yet this enthusiasm often manifests as overacting, with performances that feel shrill and overly laboured rather than nuanced. The result is a lack of cohesion, as though each actor is working within a slightly different tonal register.
Narratively, the film treads familiar ground. The premise is serviceable but predictable, and the execution does little to elevate it beyond genre convention. Compounding these issues is an unnecessarily long runtime. At close to two hours, the film feels bloated; a tighter edit—closer to the ninety-minute mark—would likely have improved its pacing and overall impact.
Ultimately, Forever Home is a well-intentioned but frustrating viewing experience. Despite flashes of charm and a dedicated cast, its uneven tone, excessive length, and overblown performances undermine its potential. While it doesn’t descend to the depths of the genre’s worst offerings, it comes uncomfortably close, leaving the impression of a film that needed far more restraint—and far less noise—to truly succeed.
On digital 20 April from Miracle Media
