The Home

Max (Pete Davidson) has been troubled ever since his foster brother Luke (Matthew Miniero) committed suicide in college when he was only ten. After being arrested for breaking into a building to create graffiti art, his foster dad, Couper (Victor Williams, TV's 'The Affair') contacts a judge who gets the twenty-three year-old into community service instead of a jail sentence as the maintenance supervisor at "The Home."

Laura's Review: C-

You wouldn't know that the writer/director of the first three "Purge" movies, cowriter (with Adam Cantor)/director James DeMonaco, was behind this one as the first impression one gets watching "The Home" is of amateurish filmmaking with dark imagery and the type of shuffle-mode editing that stands in for nightmares. But once the film's plot kicks in, DeMonaco manages to intrigue, at least for a while.

That is mostly due to Mary Beth Peil (2004's "The Stepford Wives," "Mirrors"), whose Norma is a resident that forms an empathetic relationship with Max, later warning him that there is something awfully wrong at Green Meadows, but even she is given a bit of the shaft by the time this movie comes to its over the top conclusion.

Max, who is seen watching news coverage about an oncoming storm before he breaks into that building, a storm that is oncoming for the entirety of this movie, is greeted by Green Meadows' Les (Adam Cantor, "The Purge: Election Year") and Juno (Mugga, "The First Purge") who give him his assignment and lay down the rules. He's given a key which Juno tells him opens everything but 'a few hallways in the basement' and is told that the facility's fourth floor is completely off limits, the patients residing their needing special care, so we know where the nefarious stuff will be going on.

At first things seem OK, Max watching Lou (John Glover, "Payback"), a resident and former Broadway actor, holding a lively acting class, then being tricked into a welcome party by Les and Juno, but when Max hears screaming coming from above while working on the third floor, he picks a lock to help whoever is in distress. What he finds is pretty horrific, but Lou, Juno and Dr. Sabian (Bruce Altman) take him to task in such a way as to partially allay his suspicions. But a little investigation into Sabian unearths a bizarre chat room where a dog-faced woman warns of 'marked ones' and Norma, the lovely woman who recognizes her and Max's connection with 'A heart knows a heart,' suffers a horrific lethal accident right in front of Max.

Davidson is fine as Max, displaying compassion and horror, but he doesn't really add anything anybody else could have. In addition to former "Purge" cast members, we also get character actors like Altman and Jessica Hecht, who plays Max's foster mom Sylvia, more talent than this film warrants.

DeMonaco cobbles his horror imagery together from such films as "Rosemary's Baby," "The Shining" and "A Clockwork Orange," his bloodbath of a climax raising questions as to just how all this will be explained to authorities. And that storm that seems to hover over the proceedings for ages? It comes into play to take care of two characters so that Max doesn't have to, apparently its entire raison d'etre. "The Home" is best left for late night cable or streaming fare.

Robin's Review: C

Max (Pete Davidson) has to do time in community service and his choice is one – custodian at a nursing home. It is that or he goes to jail. Not long after he starts working as a custodian, he notices some very strange goings-on with both the caretakers and the residents in “The Home.”
This is the third in a recent spate of films about the elderly and nursing care places. Last year’s “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” starring a horrific John Lithgow and Jeffrey Rush, is a tale of old folks being terrorized by a sadist – not a good look at nursing facilities as actual caretakers only make fleeting appearances and ignore their wards. It was offensive to me.

Then, there is the recent “Familiar Touch,” starring the wonderful Kathleen Chalfont, which gives an honest look into elder care (for the more prosperous) and the oncoming of Alzheimer’s disease as it consumes, for some, their lives. It is a study of people nearing the end of their lives and how it is handled by the system.

Now, we have “The Home, which is nothing more than a pastiche of elements from other, better horror movies, like “The Shining” and “A Clockwork Orange.” Max arrives at Green Meadows for his first day of community service and, right away, he feels like he is being watched. He is then greeted by staff members who tell him the “the fourth floor is off limits.” So, right away, we know that something is wrong in the state of Denmark.

From here on in, it is all sinister with creepy old people and a government program gone terribly wrong as the truth about the fourth floor is revealed. It is a suitable sick concept that, in our time of greed and disregard for others, is somehow plausible, given the state of our country right now.
My advice to filmmakers – lay off us old people! Unless you do it right, like “Familiar Touch.”

Roadside/Lionsgate releases "The Home" in theaters on  7/25/25.