During the pandemic, Graeme Arnfield utilized his time to sit in bed and create a truly chilling cinema essay on, of all things, the doorbell. Enjoying it’s North American premiere at Fantasia Fest 2023, Home Invasion tracks the history of a seemingly innocuous home device along with how burgeoning technology has informed horror storytelling and cinema over the years.
There are five different stories that come together to tell the history of the doorbell, and they all begin with someone waking up from a nightmare. From 1811 to the present day, people have been
terrorized by the myriad ‘What If’s’ of society that culminate in home invasion, and this is what has informed the doorbell as we know it today.
Arnfield utilizes archival patent illustrations, found footage and domestic security footage alongside home invasion movie clips spanning the decades to illustrate just how intertwined our collective anxiety is with our inventions and choice of entertainment. Cinema wise, it’s D.W. Griffith, a movie director, who, after a phone call with his fiancé, was consumed with the idea that you can physically be in one place, but emotionally in another, via speaking on the telephone. Ultimately, he would direct a short film that is considered the first home invasion film and it is also where parallel editing came to be. Griffith cut from a scene of a terrified woman locked inside her home, terrorized by menacing vagrants outside that threaten to break in, to her husband on the phone in another town. Inspired by Parisian horror theater (Grand Guignol) that was one act plays about the terrors of the day, he had now made it possible for the outside world to also be a part of inside the home. For the horror viewer, this part of Home Invasion is extremely fascinating: Arnfield expertly intertwines the new technology of the telephone with visual
storytelling in an indelible way that will be utilized to this day. Really, what is a home invasion film without the tension of seeing what’s happening outside of the home?
Arnfield also explores the Luddite revolution, which drags on a bit too long, but also seems to serve as a cautionary tale of the dangers of humans relying on machines. Human uprising against machines is, in a roundabout way, how the original doorbell was invented and we get
to watch that come to life as well.
The entire documentary is filmed in a keyhole style, so at all times, it feels strangely voyeristic and ominous. It’s not until 1966 when the doorbell undergoes a truly life changing renovation. Marie Van Britten Brown, a black nurse, had been burglarized multiple times and feared being in her own home. She would build the first home surveillance system that looks quite a bit like today’s Ring doorbell that so many people have, and Arnfield connects all of these dots seamlessly. He is certain to remind us that Ring is not a doorbell company but a surveillance
company that happens to sell a doorbell and the myriad negative implications that this has on society.
Home Invasion starts off strong, meanders a bit with the Luddites, but ultimately, it’s a truly fascinating horror film/documentary hybrid that effectively illustrates how the ability for us to see the outside world has caused more anxiety than not.
Played at Fantasia International Film Festival
Lisa Fremont
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