James DeMonaco’s New Horror “The Home” Starring Pete Davidson Promises a Shocking Twist That Will Keep You Up at Night—Are You Ready to Face Your Fears?

James DeMonaco isn’t just comfortable in the shadows—he thrives there. He’s made a name by peeling back the layers of our darkest societal anxieties and spinning them into chilling cinematic tales. If you thought The Purge was his final bow, think again. Now, DeMonaco invites us into the ominous world of The Home, a slow-burning horror flick that explores something far more intimate than masked killers—aging, memory, and our relentless chase after youth. Imagine taking a job at a retirement facility, only to find that beneath its polished exterior lies a disturbing secret waiting to unravel. Featuring Pete Davidson in a role that’s anything but the comedy we know, this film digs deep into trauma and loss with a rawness that’s equal parts haunting and heartbreakingly real. So, what happens when our obsession with staying young overshadows the reality of growing older? And can the most terrifying horror be the fear of simply being forgotten? Let’s just say, DeMonaco’s newest nightmare might stick with you long after the credits roll. LEARN MORE

James DeMonaco isn’t afraid of the dark. In fact, he’s built a career out of transforming society’s deepest fears into cinematic nightmares.

Now, DeMonaco, best known for creating The Purge, returns with The Home—a slow-burn horror film that turns aging, memory, and our obsession with youth into something truly haunting. 

The film, which is now playing in theatres, stars Pete Davidson as Max, a young man with a troubled past who takes a job at a retirement facility. As Max settles into his new role, he begins to uncover disturbing secrets behind the home’s pristine facade.

For DeMonaco, the idea came from a deeply personal place—childhood visits to nursing homes that left a lasting impression on him and co-writer Adam Cantor. “It burned a hole in both our brains,” DeMonaco says, “being in these facilities where—I hate to overanalyze it, but it is the last stop before death.” They wrote the script during the pandemic, working outdoors in DeMonaco’s backyard while their kids played nearby. 

The project evolved in an unexpected direction after DeMonaco’s reluctant dive into yoga. “My wife’s like, ‘You’ve got to get healthy,’” he recalls. “So I started yoga, and my YouTube feed just flooded with longevity videos featuring people trying to live to 150. Some of it’s great, some of it’s pseudoscience. But the obsession with chasing youth? That hit me.”

That theme shaped not only the narrative but also the casting. “We thought of Pete right away,” he says. “We grew up near each other in Staten Island. I met him at an Italian restaurant during a Purge party for the first film. He was a busboy and came up and introduced himself. We have been friends ever since.” Though best known for comedy, DeMonaco saw something deeper in Davidson. “Everybody knows Pete as the comedian, but we knew him as a very soulful, serious guy. He’s been through a lot, and we felt he could channel that trauma into the role because, like the character, he experienced loss at a young age.”

That personal connection carried into the creative process, and DeMonaco immediately showed Davidson the script. “We were literally hanging out in his mom’s basement,” DeMonaco says with a grin. “Just spending time together, talking through the story. It all kind of grew from there.”

On set, Davidson surprised everyone.

“He has a muscle I’ve never seen in another actor. I’d throw him ten new lines, and he’d say, ‘Give me 30 seconds.’ Then he’d come back with it all memorized. That’s the SNL improv muscle.”

The film was shot inside a real, abandoned retirement home in Denville, New Jersey, which added an extra layer of creepiness behind the scenes. “It still had the remnants of the people who lived there,” DeMonaco says. “Plaques on the walls showed who had died in each room. It definitely had a creepy feel.” One discovery, though, still gives him chills. “In one of the rooms, we found a music box under a bed. We learned the last resident was named Norma, which is the same name as Mary Beth Peil’s character in the movie. And one of the songs the box played was the very one she sings in the film. That coincidence was creepy as hell.”

On set, the horrors weren’t all make-believe. There were real rats (one named Caesar), a venomous centipede that sent the crew into a panic, and the bitter winter cold. But nothing topped the now-infamous eye clamp scene.

“I want viewers to know—that is not a stunt eye,” DeMonaco says. “That’s Pete Davidson’s actual eye. He thought we’d use a double. I said, ‘Pete, it’s got to be you.’ And so he did it. We had two doctors on set.” He laughs, then adds, “We’re filming the close-up, the clamp is in, and two minutes in, the doctor whispers, ‘We’re about 20 seconds from doing irreparable damage to Pete’s cornea.’ We had to quickly reset from there. The needle is CGI, but the clamp? All real.”

Despite the long days, tight schedule, and the cold, DeMonaco says it brought the cast and crew closer. “I don’t think filmmaking should be easy,” he says. “That pressure creates a bond. You feel it onscreen.” Music also helped set the tone. “I’d blast ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond,’ and Pete would come in with his boombox and rap. Music always gets everyone into the same emotional headspace.”

More Than Just Scares

There’s a rhythm to The Home—a quiet build that crashes into a final act full of blood and reckoning. “It’s a generational reckoning,” DeMonaco says. “What the older generation has taken, what they’ve left behind, what the next one has to inherit. I look at my daughter and wonder what kind of world she’s getting. Pete’s character carries that.” Though it plays like horror, The Home is built to resonate on deeper levels. “I always try to infuse those layers,” he says. “I don’t want to preach, but there are layers there for the people who want it.” DeMonaco borrows a term from Martin Scorsese: “smuggler cinema”—using genre as a vessel to explore bigger ideas. “Horror’s perfect for that,” he adds.

The Legacy of The Purge

Before The Home, DeMonaco built a cultural juggernaut with The Purge—a $450 million global franchise built on a single, disturbing premise: What if all crime were legal for one night a year? What began as a lean $3 million thriller became a Halloween staple, complete with masks, memes, and a two-season TV series. “I’ve always been afraid of guns,” DeMonaco explained. After a frightening run-in with a drunk driver and a comment from his wife—“Everyone should get one free ‘one’”—the idea stuck, and thus The Purge was born.

“It coalesced with my feelings about gun control in America,” he said. “That turned into this holiday where murder was legal, so we could purge the inner beast.” The Purge isn’t about monsters. It’s about us—our rage, our fear, and how close society can teeter toward collapse.

And DeMonaco isn’t done yet. “I just finished writing another Purge,” he said with a smile. “Pete and I also have a dramatic comedy we want to write. But I think what’s next for me is another horror film.”

With The Home in theatres now, James DeMonaco has crafted a horror story that does more than frighten—it lingers. It asks what happens when our obsession with youth outpaces our understanding of mortality. It stares into the void of what comes next, and it suggests that maybe the scariest thing of all, is being forgotten.