The Home Review (FrightFest 2025)
The Home is a film that oozes potential. With the creators of The Purge writing and directing the project, Pete Davidson as your lead and a premise which, though familiar, carries a lot of intrigue, how could it possibly go wrong?
The film follows rebellious twentysomething Max, who is sentenced to community service at a retirement home. As his suspicions grow and he digs deeper, he uncovers a chilling secret that puts both the residents’ lives and his own in peril.
For as good as the initial concept is, the film manages to fall apart rather quickly. The setup is there and, for the most part, it is well executed if rather fast, but once that premise is established, the film then chooses to go in every wrong direction possible. It’s not a hard concept to ruin, but everything from the scares to the twists the story takes feels either lacklustre practice or presented in such an unnaturally awkward manner that it becomes unintentionally humorous.
James DeMonaco has proven himself with past projects that he can direct a solid horror film; The Home unfortunately feels like several steps backwards. There are many instances where edits or even camera moves occur slightly later than they should, which results in jump scares and tense scenes that are nowhere near as effective as they were intended to be.
The film also hinges on the fact that the audience has grown close enough to Max as a central character, but neither the story nor the direction does enough work to justify the reasons why we should care. The opening rapidly goes through his backstory, and that’s all we’re given before being thrown into the retirement home, as spooky things start to happen. The audience is made aware of the basic things we need to know, but we need to be able to truly feel the impact that later narrative twists should have.
This issue is also reinforced by Davidson’s performance, which isn’t bad but also lacks the depth or motivation that is required for a role such as Max. Davidson is a solid actor and can work well in roles that lean on both his comedic abilities and his genuine vulnerability. However, with this film, it does come across as if he’s going through motions to get from one scene to the next and lacks chemistry with any of his co-stars. As for the inhabitants of the retirement home, who constantly switch from endearing to creepy through their performances, they can come across as accidentally hilarious due to the way they are shot and acted.
The Home is every part underwhelming as it is predictable. The scares are lacklustre, the storytelling is clichéd, and every other key element that should make this film tense and compelling is too uninspired in execution for it to have any lasting impact. Even with Pete Davidson in the lead role, nothing can save this film from how confused it really is.
★★
Playing at FrightFest 2025 from 21st August / Pete Davidson, John Glover, Ethan Phillips, Bruce Altman, Mary Beth Peil / Dir: James DeMonaco / Signature Entertainment / 18
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