After many years of working on the notable horror franchise, “The Purge,” writer/director James Demonaco created a new film starring Pete Davidson as the lead. “The Home” takes place in a retirement home, where Max (played by Davidson) is subject to work at. Max has a rebellious spirit as he grew up as a foster kid and lost his brother, Lou, at a young age. He has an aloof attitude when he starts his new job, being weirded out by the elders but not to any significant enough point where it causes conflict…yet.
Throughout the movie, Max learns that the folks at the retirement home are harboring secrets that they desperately don’t want him to learn about. As the plot unfolds, we see him go through his hero’s arc as he unveils what is hidden in the home, and by the end, the payoff for his discoveries is lethal.
When we first meet Max, we get a glimpse of his childhood, where we see him surrounded by his foster siblings, the closest being his brother Luke. After we see Max learn about Luke’s death, we quickly transition to seeing him as an adult, showing that he never truly moved on from this traumatic incident.
While Max is closed off, he is not outwardly rude to people in the beginning, indicating that beneath his hard exterior, he is very empathetic. This contributes to his character’s disposition as it shows that while he has an amount of grit to challenge obstacles in his way, he also cares for others, giving us insight into his more compassionate side.
Scary movie leads don’t usually battle their foes without some sort of strong feeling behind what they are doing. Even if it is a reckless main character, they tend to have clear wants and needs. On a personal level, Max seeks the comfort and stability he had when he was a kid. These feelings are now lost upon him, leaving him hollow and detached. However, as he learns more about what’s happening around him, we see that Max has a personal sense of justice when figuring out what exactly is taking place in the retirement home, and it’s not hard to understand why.
In many ways, foster care and retirement home are two sides of the same coin. They both reflect a significant stage of living and require dependence on others when it comes to one’s well-being. When Max starts working at the retirement home, he has a chance to be on the other side of his childhood dynamic and make observations from a different perspective.
None of the residents at this home has family visiting them, and Max sees them rely on each other for camaraderie, similar to his relationship with Luke. Max really has a strong presence, as there is such a strong contrast between the friendliness of the residents and his being stoic. Whether it’s age, attitude, or both.
Max is a black sheep, even as the residents of the home greet him with smiles as if they have known him their whole lives. Despite his efforts to remain detached, the longer he stays there, he has vivid dreams of the secrets that the retirement home holds – secrets that at this point, he thinks are fictional. These visions put Max on the edge as he tries to get through his work. He continues to periodically have these dreams and has new encounters like hearing screams and, most notably, befriending Norma.
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When Max meets Norma, a resident at the home, they share a tender moment where she references a painting that used to hold a special memory. After Max attempts to help repair the artwork, Norma is overcome with a sudden pang of protective energy and warns Max about the home, giving vague instructions of caution before speedily shutting the door due to fear.
This is a significant turning point for Max, not only because he made a tender connection with someone, but because his feelings of suspicion were validated. This heavily plays on the curiosity Max already had and pushes him to take initiative in further investigating the home. His strong, determined spirit continues to shine through, but it is his careful interaction with another person that really pushes him.
Unfortunately, Norma ends up facing a gruesome death, and after witnessing this, Max truly reaches his breaking point. He really takes the plot by the horns and breaks the rules in order to search for clues. After accessing Norma’s belongings before they get destroyed, Max discovers a diary entry of hers confirming that weird activity is in fact taking place in the home.
The more curious he gets, the more the plot unfolds into the grand reveal that Max’s entire life was based on a horrific lie. It is revealed that Max’s parents, along with the folks at the retirement home, are part of a cult that harvests fluid from victims to keep them youthful.
Max’s parents raise these victims as foster kids and have them eventually transition into becoming employees at the home. This is how they prey on and abuse others, and once they serve their purpose, they fall extremely ill and become residents on the fourth floor.
As Max finds himself taking in the chaos, he realizes that not only has he walked straight into the cult’s plan, but so has his brother. When recovering on the fourth floor, Max looks at one of the old male residents he’s interacted with before, and is emotionally moved to learn that this man is indeed a weak, abused version of his brother.
At this point in the story, Max was close to his demise, but his brother literally gives him the ammunition to keep going. After doing rounds and extracting fluid from the other residents, Luke injects Max with the same chemical the cult has been using, allowing him to become reignited with energy and go all out to defeat the cult members.
By the third act, Max is jacked up, killing all those who deceived him and contributed to the cycle of mistreatment. The more gruesome encounters Max goes through, the more blood is drawn. He ends up becoming drenched in blood, reflecting both his victory and ruthlessness by the end of the film.
It becomes apparent that so much of what we watched in the movie led up to this final moment, and even if you didn’t find much enjoyment in the film up to this point, it’s hard not to be entertained seeing Pete Davidson’s crazed eyes fixate on everyone who wronged him. His character doesn’t simply get blood on him as he’s killing people, but becomes drenched in it to the point where his face is entirely red with the whites of his eyes peeking through. We get to see Max fully let go and feel avenged for everything that he has faced.
There is an immense sense of satisfaction in seeing the once-overconfident, stuck-up cult members cower and flee in fear. It shows that they were only ever powerful when preying upon the weak and have never had anyone truly stand up to them. You get a chance to see the main character of “The Home” feel vindicated, but we, as the audience, also get a sense of closure. Max kills all those involved in the cult and lives to tell the tale, ending their scheme of violence.
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