| Deathlands: Homeward Bound | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Joshua Butler |
| Produced by | Derek Rappaport |
| Screenplay by | Gabrielle G. Stanton Harry Werksman |
| Based on | Homeward Bound (novel) by James Axler |
| Starring | Vincent Spano Jenya Lano Colin Fox Alan C. Peterson Traci Lords |
| Music by | Christopher Lennertz |
| Cinematography | Bruce Worrall |
| Editing by | Joshua Butler |
| Studio | Amber Light Films Inc. Kinetic Pictures |
| Distributed by | Sci Fi Channel Universal Home Video |
| Release date(s) | May 17, 2003 (United States) |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Deathlands: Homeward Bound is a 2003 Sci Fi Channel television film based loosely on the Deathlands series of books. The film stars Vincent Spano and Traci Lords, and was directed by Joshua Butler.[1][2]
Contents |
Earth is devaststed by a nuclear war in 2084. The sky is red from chemical waste, and was once the United States has become "Deathland"s inhabited by mutants. Communities ruled by powrful survivors are called "viles", and the one known as "Front Royale" had being ruled by a good man, but he is killed by his wife, Lady Rachel Cawdor (Traci Lords), after which his son Harvey Cawdor (Alan C. Peterson) kills his one of his brothers and partially blinds one of his young brother Ryan Cawdor(Vincent Spano), who manages to escape.
After spending twenty years in the wastelands, the one-eyed Ryan returns to Front Royale accompanied by his girlfriend Krysty Worth (Jenya Lano), the teenage half-mutant Jak Laurent (Nathan Carter), and weapons specialist JB Dix (Cliff Saunders), to face his mother and brother and avenge his father's murder.
DVD Talk wrote that when compared to other films made for television, this one was "a low-budget mish-mash of elements from Dune and The Most Dangerous Game and was worse than expected, though "moderately entertaining" and something that could be apreciated by fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was found that the acting and visual effect were poor, and compared it to Ed Wood-type experiences, "where you just marvel that the turkey was ever release". The reviewer sumarixed by writing the film "is really, really bad - so bad that it's actually entertaining if you want to laugh at movie-making ineptitude."[2]
Hal Erickson of Rovi made note of the popularity of the book series upon which the film is based, and that the film seemed aimed at long-distance truck drivers.[3]
The film premiered on the Sci Fi Channel on May 17, 2003, and was released on video in Argentina in 2005. It has its United States DVD premiere in February 2008. It worldwide release under different titles: Campos de Morte Brazil, Deathlands Argentina, Deathlands, le chemin du retour France, I gi ton nekron Greece, La tierra de la muerta Spain, and Pusztító atomcsapás Hungary
The DVD includes four separate trailers for the movie, all similar in content and under the shorter title Deathlands, as well as a "production stills" gallery accompanied by music from the film's score, and an audio commentary track with director Joshua Butler who provides background on the film's production.[2]
While Deathlands: Homeward Bound closely follows the plot of the fifth Deathlands novel, Homeward Bound, it departs in a number of notable ways. Dr. Theophilus Tanner and Lori Quint are completely absent from the film, and Jak Lauren is specifically identified as a mutant, versus simply being an albino as in the novels. J.B. Dix is also changed, being significantly more talkative than his character in the novels, where he is described as a man who "would never use three words when two would do the job." The purpose of redoubts is not clearly explained, and the film makes no mention of the MAT-TRANS facilities typically found in redoubts and used by Ryan and his friends to travel throughout most of the novels.