The Home: Davidson Delivers in this Solid Horror Thriller

At least on paper, The Home would not immediately jump out in terms of the horror genre. Its premise doesn’t bring anything new to the table, an outsider is introduced to a new environment where something is clearly wrong and it is up to said outsider to investigate the issue at hand and/or escape before it is too late. That being said, when it is packaged the right way, it has a decent chance of survival. In the case of this film, in spite of its flaws, the charisma of Pete Davidson definitely goes a long way. Relatively short, clocking in at around the 90-minute mark, it does not overstay its welcome and succeeds at what it set out to do. Nevertheless, audiences can expect plenty of cliches and tropes to drive the story forward but, above all else, there is just something about Davidson that makes him so fun to watch that it doesn’t matter as much. Very much earning its 18A/R rating, the film does not shy away from brutality, almost written from its chaotic climax back as characters and its plot are merely a means to an end in getting there. However, expecting more out of a film like this is, more often than not, a futile endeavour. In the end, for horror fans or audiences who simply want to turn off their minds and be entertained, the film will fit the bill.

The Home is centered around Max (Davidson), a troubled graffiti artist whose frequent brushes with the law landed him with a sentence of a 4-month stint working as a janitor for a remote upstate New York retirement home. Having prepared himself for months of boredom, his expectations took a drastic turn upon arrival, as the home and its residents were full of life. Biding his time, perhaps his ordeal wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be but, as mentioned, something wasn’t quite right about Green Meadows. Warned to stay away from the fourth floor of the home, that ominous warning proved to be a dead giveaway in what essentially is a predictable story in just about every way. As haunting screams echoed through the night, the issue would be one that became hard to ignore once Max’s lack of sleep started to take a toll on him. Still grieving the loss of his foster brother Luke (Matthew Miniero), the film attempts to weave in themes of grief and loss into the story as a perspective through which Max tries to interpret what is happening, however, that perspective adds nothing to the experience.

Sleep deprived and falling further down the rabbit hole while investigating the darker side of Green Meadows, Max is pulled further into a web of secrets and lies as he found himself encountering a series of cryptic warnings and messages hinting as to what may really be going on behind closed doors. Concerned for the wellbeing of the home’s residents, the answers he sought were clearly on the fourth floor but, little did Max know, how elaborate that darker side truly was. All setting the stage for the film’s inevitable climax, the level of brutality ratcheted up considerably as it would be up to Max to free himself from the clutches of the conspiracy that had consumed the nursing home, and exact his revenge in a sequence whose brutality does not quite fit tonally with the rest of the film.

Ultimately, the best part of The Home is of course Davidson’s strong performance as Max. Single-handedly holding the film together through the power of his charm and charisma, it may be departure from what many audiences are used to seeing from the actor, but he shows that he is more than capable to do horror as comedy and horror both require timing. The sole driving force of the narrative, not much could be said about the supporting cast other than they each deliver decent performances that help support Davidson’s Max and deliver enough to support the film’s tone and atmosphere.

All things considered, The Home is a horror thriller that, in spite of its flaws, delivers solid entertainment off the back of the effortless charm of Pete Davidson.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.