Aaron Ploof
While I was getting my ticket for Pete Davidson’s horror movie, The Home, I told the clerk at the station that I had heard the movie was getting negative reviews. I informed him that I was a film reviewer, and I didn’t expect much from this particular movie. The clerk agreed. “Just from looking at the synopsis, it looks like a fifth grader wrote it,” he said, “But who knows, maybe Pete Davidson will improve the film.” “Yeah, I hope so,” I replied, “but I doubt it.”
The film turned out to be every bit as horrible as I expected, with a plot line that indeed could have been written by a child. While there are some interesting ideas in The Home, they are executed so poorly that they drag the entire movie down. The Home delivers my most lackluster experience at the movie theatre yet. It is no place to live.
There’s No Place Like The Home
Pete Davidson stars as Max, a troublemaker who is on his last legs. As a child, Max lived with a foster family, but when his brother left for college and soon passed away, Max rebelled. He turned to a life of petty crime to deal with the pain. Cornered with no choice but to do community service to escape a prison sentence, Max gets a job as a janitor/orderly at a retirement home for the next few months.
From the moment Max steps across the threshold into The Home, strange and horrific things begin happening. First off, Max witnesses a man and masked woman having sex nearby his room. Then, a resident starts bleeding profusely in the pool while doing her exercises. Finally, there’s the eerie warning Max receives from his employers. The fourth floor is strictly off limits. Special patients live on that floor. No matter what he sees or hears, he is not to go up there.
Of course, this being a horror film, Max eventually finds his way to the fourth floor. What he sees there is highly troubling. So troubling, in fact, that it’s difficult to believe that Max wouldn’t just abandon his post and leave the retirement home altogether. But no, viewers have to sit and watch in pain as Max uncovers the horrific secrets of The Home.
Going Through the Motions
Seeing Max uncover The Home’s secrets isn’t exactly enjoyable. Davidson is a bore in the role and is never believable. No matter what terrifying encounter he has with whatever befalls him, he never reacts appropriately. His responses are too small for extraordinarily horrific events. Instead, he looks like a blank slate, staring off into the distance. His dialogue is awkward, with him constantly talking to himself in strange ways. This brings a comedic tone to moments that don’t call for it.
Max’s character is also underdeveloped. From the outset, all we know is that his brother left and died, and now he expresses that anger as a rebellious small-time criminal. His character has no arc to speak of; he’s just a misplaced 20-something in a situation that is way over his head. It could be argued that he makes for a great everyman character to ego-identify with, but then, why doesn’t he turn tail and skedaddle when things get real?
There is a bright spot in the film. John Glover plays Lou, a fellow resident at The Home who befriends Max and helps him adjust to his new situation. Glover clearly relishes the role and brings great boisterous energy to it. He’s the best thing happening on the screen and is infinitely watchable.
Oh, the Melodrama
But all that is brought down by a script and a method of filming that is overtly cheesy and melodramatic. Characters talk in awkward dialogue. Forceful music plays every single time something even remotely scary is on screen, forcing us into feeling, instead of letting us feel the emotions ourselves. I’m all for mood-setting music, but when it’s fed into every moment of your film in the most obnoxious way, I begin to feel like I’m not being respected. The scares likewise feel forced. With multiple returns to the same shot time and time again. Look, there’s that woman looking out the window again!
When the film gets bloody, it’s overtly so, in a way that doesn’t feel diegetic to the world the film inhabits. The tone set by the outset of the film is that it will be on the lighter side of horror, yet the imagery is consistently shocking and gratuitously gruesome, and doesn’t match what is established at the beginning.
Is There a Theme Here?
When the film reaches its final act, it’s completely transformed into something different altogether. A blatant, uncomfortable bloodbath that just feels icky. For comparison, The Ugly Stepsister was similarly gory and bloody, but its violence never felt out of place. The gratuity in The Home brought me out of the experience. It’s over the top in only the way The Purge director James DeMonaco can make it. However, that doesn’t mean it feels like it fits.
The film may be trying to say something about the older generation and how it can suck the life out of those who are younger. Ultimately, however, I was left confused about what the ultimate message of the film was. Thematically, the movie is a mess. Any message that is attempted to be made is lost in the miasma of poorly made content.
Leave This Place
The Home is a mess and is unsatisfying as a horror film. With a horrible lead, poorly executed scares and dialogue, and a wonky script, this is a film you don’t want to experience. John Glover gives an excellent performance, but it’s not enough to lift this one out of the muck. I give this film my lowest grade yet.
Score: 3/10
The Home is now playing in theatres nationwide.
