[Film Review] New York Asian Film Festival: Back Home (2023)

Despite what a particularly vocal subset of haters might crow online, horror has always explored the well-solidified connection between familial trauma and the supernatural. Countless horrors spanning all eras, from Don’t Look Now to Relic, have propounded the idea that far scarier than any ghost, ghoul or demon are the scars your family can leave on you - in the case of Nate Ki’s Back Home, both literally and physically.

After receiving word that his mother Lan (Bai Ling) has tried to take her own life and is in a coma, paranormally endowed Heung Wing (Anson Kong) returns to his native Hong Kong and the dilapidated apartment building he once called home. Filled with memories of his mother’s abuse, Wing must decipher what is real and what is spectral as he tries to discover the malevolent mystery surrounding his mother’s attempted suicide and the building’s abandoned seventh floor.

In his feature debut, Ki has crafted an ambitious and emotionally charged supernatural horror that perfectly captures the regression and regret of returning to a traumatic past. Ki wears his influences proudly, with nods to horror cinema of his home country, such as the Pang Brothers’ terrifying 2002 The Eye and the urban rot so often explored by the works of Fruit Chan. There’s also nods to a number of modern horrors from the US, most stylistically obvious of which being Hereditary and Get Out.

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As a result, fans of international horror, especially horror from East Asia, will surely be transfixed by Back Home’s rich tapestry of Hong Kongese mythologies and superstitions that interweave with a number of ‘Western’ style jumpscares (that feel thrilling and earned rather than forced) to create a story that everyone can relate to, a familial fear that transcends cultures and language. 

To further this accessibility, there is something in Back Home to scare everyone, no matter what your particularly flavor of fear: creepy ghost children, urban legend style hauntings and surreal fantastical sequences – a particularly highlight of which combines nightmarish sound design, oppressive atmosphere and disturbing yet beautiful visuals resulting in an almost Silent Hill feel.

Most disturbing are the depictions of abuse against the young Wing at the hand and barbed tongue of his unstable mother, made all too real by a painful performance from young Wing, whose fear of and desperation to please his mother we see through flashbacks, and is at times hard to watch. The young actor fits neatly into an impressive roster of talent, led by Cantopop superstar Kong, whose spiraling sanity evokes empathy in an endearingly vulnerable performance.

The star of the show however is The Crow’s Ling, who commands attention whenever she’s on screen, hypnotically eerie in traditional hanfu get-up in her most striking scenes. In a just world, Ling would have her performance recognized appropriately alongside other terrifying mothers in horror like Margaret White and Annie Graham. Hopefully, after its premiere at NYAFF cemented Ki as a director to watch, Back Home will explode onto the radar of horror fans, garnering this tragic and terrifying tale the attention it deserves.

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