The Home (2025) Review

Opening Frightfest this year is the UK Premiere of The Home, from director James DeMonaco –  a name fans may recognise as creator of popular horror franchise The Purge.

Pete Davidson of SNL fame returns to horror after dipping his toe in 2022’s comedy slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies. This time, Davidson’s role is expanded from minor ‘token B list celebrity’ character to leading role in this geriatric genre piece.

Despite reportedly spending an estimated $200’000 in recent years lasering away his own famous inkings, Pete plays the troubled, tattooed Max, sentenced to complete a period of community service in a retirement home in return for his latest brush with the law.

Love him or hate him, Davidson is known for his comedic cameos, so viewers will perhaps be forgiven for waiting for a punchline that doesn’t materialise. This may be Davidson’s attempt to shift perception from funny man to serious actor, but if The Home is anything to go by, he may be facing a long road ahead of him to get there.

Aficionados of gratuitous violence as seen in Monaco’s Purge franchise might be anticipating similarly tortuous tension, yet The Home is disappointingly restrained. The film instead progresses slowly as the viewer follows the breadcrumbs of a narrative that feels reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel.

The primary threat of The Home plays on the familiar trope that there is something mysterious, unknowable and fundamentally and wrong with the elderly, yet with a self aware irony that the true fear lingers not in the unknown, but instead the unpalatable reality that age comes to us all.

From the hunched figure banging from a high window accompanied by the score of discordant strings, to the implied disgust the audience should feel as they are exposed to the notion of intimacy in the elderly, the film plays with the question as to where the threat really lies.

The feature focuses on Max’s time within the retirement home as he carries out his duties and gets to know the residents around him. He begins to question some of the mysterious practices within the facility – particularly the activities of the elusive fourth floor.

The audience is encouraged to link Max’s own traumatic upbringing with his quest for the truth, but Davidson’s apathetic portrayal makes this feel like a leap.

Having enjoyed comedy performances from him previously, I was willing to approach The Home with an open mind, but sadly for me this film felt like a narrative driven by your connection to the protagonist and in this case, it fell flat. I’m not sure Davidson is actually aware that there are other emotions that can be displayed when comedy isn’t on the table, instead choosing to spend the entire film completely expressionless. At one point, he even manages the amazing feat of crying whilst simultaneously displaying no emotion at all.

For younger audiences, Davidson may be the draw, a casting that presumably cemented the decision to have the feature debut the famous festival. Whilst the ‘star’ lingers in the background, there are stand out performances to appreciate, such as familiar face John Glover who portrays aging thespian, Lou.

Lou himself delivers the most enigmatic yet poignant line of the film, indicating that the true cause of demise in the elderly is not death or disease, but boredom.

It’s a reflection that any viewer responsible for aging family will have at one point found weighing heavily on their mind. There’s a reason so many horror films are set in hospitals and care homes.

A lot of the scares in The Home come from cliche tropes, jumps and misdirection, something I felt did a disservice to what is fundamentally a good story. Despite its flaws, I wanted to stay to the end for the reveal. As the film enters its final hurrah, there is a change in pace that feels too little, too late.

As a millennial, I noted the allegories alluding to the impact of ‘boomers’ on the world today and there are undeniable nods to Brian Yuzna’s Society, but Society worked so well because it fully embraced how camp and silly it was.

The Home sadly takes itself far too seriously and feels shoehorned into a genre that it doesn’t quite fit. Had it been sold as a mystery/thriller that had a left field screeching turn into over the top, slapstick horror, it could have been something really special.

Movie Rating:

The Home trailer