Pete Davidson Faces His Demons in Uneven Horror Flick The Home - Review

Pete Davidson checks into fear at a haunted retirement home in The Home.

Review | The Home (2025) – Pete Davidson Checks In, But Should You?

⭐️⭐️½ out of 5

By Travis Brown

In The Home, writer-director James DeMonaco (The Purge) trades dystopian carnage for geriatric discomfort, teaming up with Pete Davidson for a grounded horror flick that leans more on mood than madness. The result is a mixed bag—equal parts unsettling and underwhelming.

Davidson plays Max, a troubled artist with a criminal record and a past steeped in trauma. Orphaned, hardened, and still mourning a brother he adored, Max finds himself sentenced to community service at an offbeat retirement home. It’s there the film settles into its skin: a blend of brooding grief, slow-burn dread, and the occasional splash of uncomfortable comedy—much of it coming from the home’s horny residents. (Yes, The Home acknowledges the often ignored truth about STDs running rampant in retirement communities.)

DeMonaco’s pivot to more intimate horror delivers moments of genuine unease. The film toys with time, memory, and buried secrets, suggesting there’s something far more sinister lurking beneath the surface of this “quiet” home. But the scares are inconsistent. Despite flashes of atmosphere and odd mysticism, The Home never truly escalates into the horror territory it teases.

Davidson tries to carry the emotional weight, and while his performance is earnest, it’s hard to shake the sense that this project—filmed quickly and likely birthed during pandemic limitations—feels more like an intriguing idea than a fully realized nightmare.

There’s a sense that The Home knows what it wants to say, especially around aging, loss, and personal demons, but it doesn’t always know how to say it effectively. And in an era full of “creepy old people” horror—from The Visit to Spain’s excellent The Elderly—DeMonaco’s take just doesn’t add anything new to the trope.

It’s uncomfortable at times, sure. It just isn’t very memorable.

Final Verdict: The Home has a pulse and a premise, but the horror never quite finds its teeth. Recommended only for diehard fans of Davidson or DeMonaco. Skip the ticket, stream it later.

In Theaters July 25 from Roadside Attractions.

Directed by James DeMonaco

Written by James DeMonaco, Adam Cantor

Produced by Bill Block, Sebastien K. Lemercier

Starring Pete Davidson, John Glover, Bruce Altman