Would The Home be better if Pete Davidson was playing his Chad character from Saturday Night Live? Yes. Is his performance in The Home still very good? Also yes.
Davidson plays wild child Alex, a man whose righteous rage at the world leads to him working community service at a grand old retirement home. Although he initially finds purpose mopping floors and cleaning up pensioner blood and turds, Alex soon comes to realise that something isn’t right at Green Meadows.
Between the frenzied screeching on the off-limits fourth floor and the terrible nightmares he suffers, he quickly twigs that he and his crinkly charges are at the heart of a dark and grisly mystery. But just how deep does it go?
Deep enough to get under the skin – The Home generates an unsettling atmosphere from the off, keeping viewers on the wrong foot with a selection of horrific visuals and alarming scare sequences throughout.
Director James DeMonaco (The Purge) harnesses Davidson’s unique affability, letting him play straight man to the mad and the bad around him. Those who do get to chew the scenery include John Glover, who may be playing a retirement home resident, but doesn’t seem to have aged a day since Smallville or Batman & Robin.
If some of its shocks come out of left field, that’s a feature, not a glitch. The Home is an intentionally disorienting journey into a dark world of pool aerobics, murder mystery evenings and… uh, camgirls with deformed faces. It’s all very silly, but the straight-faced approach works in its favour.
A retina-piercing work of oldsploitation, and an eye-opening star vehicle for its star. Like Davidson’s most famous SNL character, you’re best off just going with it.
THE HOME premiered at UK FrightFest on August 21st, 2025.
READ MORE: The FrightFest digest 2025
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