Main Cast: Balthazar Getty, Tchéky Karyo, Alice Krige, Susan Almgren, Kris Holdenreid
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
This chilling sci-fi drama is set in a sun-ravaged world no longer protected by the ozone layer. Human life has managed to continue, but it isn't easy. The tale centers on the insanely brilliant Hank Symes, a scientist who disregards the rules of his laboratory and swipes some biological materials and uses them to build the house he hopes can save humanity. Unfortunately, something goes horribly wrong and he becomes a mutant while the house itself turns into a living, unfriendly organism. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Habitat is a 1997 science fiction film produced for the direct-to-video market and shown on the Sci Fi Channel. The film's message is largely one of ecological warning, mixed with sci-fi elements of genetic engineering, family angst and redemption.
In a future where the Earth's ozone layer is severely decreased in size, the Symes family is on the run from the father's former employers and the government. Hank Symes (Tchéky Karyo) a molecular biologist, has become so obsessed with saving the world that he has placed his entire family's lives in danger. They stop in a desert community to hide out and continue work when a terrible accident occurs that transforms Hank into a fantastic ethereal lifeform and begins changing the house into a huge botanical biosphere entity which has the ability to threaten all who enter.
Their son Andreas (Balthazar Getty), however, is experiencing things from a teenagers point of view and doesn't know how he will be able to attend the local school, let alone fit in with any of the local kids as they all see him as some weirdo that just wandered into town. No matter what Andreas feels, his father is still around him, changing things for him and others and eventually even Andreas will come to see that in this strange time he is living that miracles still can happen.
This is the only theatrical movie filmed in Sony's early analog High Definition format. Sony donated the equipment and technical support in an attempt to popularize the format. The High Definition video was then transferred to film for release.
Habitat won a Global Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.[1]
.jpg)
