How horror flick ‘Home Bodies’ found the twins at its centre

Before he even knew they were twins, director Casey Walker was impressed by child actors Emma and Ian Ho.

He met the now-16-year-old Torontonians separately several years ago — Ian on the set of a CBC kids show, Emma, filming a movie in the Cayman Islands — and was immediately impressed.

“I went to give him a note, and he stopped me as I approached him and went, ‘Can I try something?'” Walker recalled of Ian. “He nailed the note I was going to give him, before I even gave it. And it was the take we wound up using.”

As for Emma: “She was holding her own against Ron Perlman for like seven weeks.”

They stood out individually, but when he learned they were twins, he immediately thought of them for a script that had recently come across his desk, “Home Bodies.”

It took years to make it happen, but the horror film about a pair of siblings raised in complete isolation in an automated house had its world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival on Thursday.

“We had like four years of delays as the film kicked through the finance machine, but it just allowed the kids to grow a little more,” said Walker, who lives in Bracebridge, Ont.

“So when they landed with me, they were pros. They showed up every day prepared. They showed up every day with a new idea.”

The teens play Red and Blue, two siblings whose eerily monotonous life is upended when a mysterious new “pal” appears in the house they’ve never left.

Walker said the twins were really engaged with the material, which isn’t always the case when working with young actors.

“They weren’t just going in and being like meat puppets on autopilot and saying words,” he said. “Because a lot of kids, their parents drill lines into them … and then they come, and the kid knows the line, but they’re empty, hollow.”

He said Ian and Emma were observant and talked at length about what their characters were experiencing.

“They could get subtext,” he said.

Ian, who plays Blue, said he was captivated by the characters.

“The house, it’s all we’ve ever known, really,” he said. “Along with that, Blue and Red are the only people they’ve ever known. And I think they’ve always been catered to in this house.”

He said working with his sister added to his comfort level.

“These characters are so complex, and there are scenes where they were emotionally high, and I never felt pressured,” he said.

Emma added: “Like, when you’re in a room with other actors (who have) probably been doing this longer than you, that you don’t know that well, you’re worried about underperforming.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2026.