Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Safer At Home’ on Hulu, A Pandemic-Inspired Non-Thriller

Remember lockdown? The wild-eyed, panicky euphoria twisting into an endless feedback loop of Zoom call hell? That’s what Safer at Home (Hulu) mines for the stuff thrillers are made of to very little effect. When a group of millennial pals have their group call hijacked by violence, we’re thrown backward into the found footage film craze, but with the unwelcome addition of an alternate timeline for COVID and the global pandemic.

SAFER AT HOME: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Donald Trump’s voice is the first thing heard in Safer at Home, as this pandemic-inspired found footage misfire from director Will Wernick spins its version of the near future off the bad vibes of the recent past. A chattering squall of news reports breezes us through the unfortunate skinny. COVID-19 gave way to new and more deadly strains. Millions upon millions upon millions perished. Widespread fires choked the US. Mandatory curfews were installed. And everyone retreated to their homes. But hey, no matter, there’s still booze and Zoom, right? And this group of longtime pals isn’t going to let the specter of global catastrophe stop them from celebrating their buddy’s birthday. Couples Evan (Dan J. Johnson) and Jen (Jocelyn Hudon) and Oliver (Michael Kupisk) and Mia (Emma Lahana) key into the call from their respective homes in Los Angeles, spunky party girl Harper (Alisa Allapach) is hitting the weed vapes in Austin, and Liam (Daniel Robaire) and Ben (Adwin Brown) are cuddling up in New York City. But as Harper says, “not that it matters where you are anymore.” Everyone opens the packages Oliver sent — “I got it from my guy in the valley. Designer shit, impossible to get, especially now…” — and pops the MDMA. Take that, COVID-20b!

Everybody on the Zoom agrees: this molly is really strong. They’re old friends; agreement is in their nature. So maybe it makes sense when they agree that Evan should flee when confronted with the possibility that he killed his girlfriend on a live stream. That’s right, when Jen takes a fall, the pals are left to watch from their online boxes as Evan loses his shit and decides to run. Conveniently, he takes his cell along. And Oliver does, too, as he drives to Evan and Jen’s. This cues a stretch of Safer at Home that dwells on the worst of found footage genre traits. Shaky low-angle POVs as a character runs, seemingly lit by the impossibly bright lumens of his cell phone screen; a guy driving his car, occasionally peering into the lens. It’s a mess, and the remaining friends endlessly locked into “What’s happening now?” reactions in their Zoom squares doesn’t help Safer find any kind of groove.

Did Evan kill Jen? Don’t worry, every cop in LA that isn’t manning the apparently numerous curfew checkpoints is suddenly on the case, so they’ll get to the bottom of it. And the truth will be captured in gallery view.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Wernick is no stranger to this style, sort of a meta found footage situation — his No Escape, another recent outing, put a YouTube star and his gaggle of pals on a collision course with Hostel-style torture porn, with the whole bit broadcasting to social media. Adam Wingard’s 2016 Blair Witch revisited the found footage play, too, and also mined some character out of its handful of panicky millennials.

Performance Worth Watching: We’re going to go with the high-functioning megabits per second speed and robust cellular data networks of a COVID-20b-ravaged 2023. 30 million dead, the United Kingdom cleaved into two sovereign states, a wall being constructed in Atlanta, and de facto martial law in place across America, but sure, the network support for your Zoom call is exquisite, just chef’s kiss perfect.

Memorable Dialogue: “If I wanted to bail, I would have left when our friend broke her fucking neck!” Harper doesn’t take kindly to her friends’ assertion that she folds under pressure.

Sex and Skin: Sex is had away from the Zoom.

Our Take: Maybe it seemed like a good idea during 2020 and the very real life lockdown/quarantine to write a film about a future of endless lockdown/quarantine, but the notion sours immediately on screen. Society is still reckoning with the pandemic, and part of that is bound to take place through film. But Safer at Home‘s idea of amplifying the worst elements of what America and the world experienced as basic background for a scattershot millennials-in-peril thriller feels callous and even a little creepy. These people are just way too twee and gleeful about their alternate COVID reality. “Central Park is now a giant makeshift hospital, so that’s great!” Ben says with a sarcastic grimace as he flippantly sips his merlot. Safer at Home is tone deaf from the jump.

Once it breaks the frame of its principals in their respective Zoom boxes, it might have offered some relief from the dullness of watching people doing little but drinking and playing Pictionary. But while characters on the move take their stream along, that only leads to another narrative dead-end — Evan frantically searching for his car, occasionally exclaiming aloud about how high he is, for the benefit of the live stream. Stationary shots dominated by the steering column of Oliver’s car as he gazes out of the windshield. Gripping! And the invariable return to the Zoom boxes, where nothing much of anything is happening, either for the characters or the audience. Safer at Home‘s roadblocks are many, and not just for these people living under a harsh government curfew.

Our Call: SKIP IT. When we all grew tired of the group Zoom call, that was when Safer at Home decided to run with the format for its would-be thriller in an alternate COVID threat future. No thanks.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch Safer At Home on Hulu