Getting old is scary, a fear that the horror genre has mined for decades. So often, that means older characters are rendered monstrous and disgusting, their aging bodies sites of abject terror to exploit our own fear of the passage of time. But in his film The Home, co-writer and director Matthias Johansson Skoglund takes a different approach, creating a terrifying examination of memory, abuse, and what it means to take care of an aging parent. While Skoglund and co-writer Mats Strandberg are working with familiar ideas, they craft a much more morose film trying to fill you with a heart-shattering dread.
The Home opens with Monika (Anika Lidén) suffering a stroke and falling in her kitchen. As the camera lingers on an empty frame of a running sink, we hear her desperately plead to an unseen force to get away from her. Right away, Skoglund establishes that something is very wrong, but doesn’t definitively say if this is supernatural or an effect of having a stroke.
Then we flash to her son Joel (Philip Oros), who’s returned to his hometown to help his mom move into the local assisted living facility. Nursing a bevy of resentments and a brain full of bad memories, this isn’t exactly a happy homecoming for Joel, but he’s doing it for his mom, who can barely seem to remember who he is. He numbs himself with bottles of Captain Morgan as he moves old furniture and cleans out his family home that’s bursting with reminders of a family in turmoil. It’s every adult child’s worst nightmare put on display, a knife to the heart, especially for those of us with aging parents.
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Among Monika’s eccentric behavior is her repeated declaration that she needs to get home to Bengt, her abusive ex-husband who passed away years ago. While the hell he rained upon his family is never explicitly shown or described, the way Joel speaks of him paints a picture of, to point it bluntly, an angry bastard. His death was the best thing that ever happened to them. So why is Monika bringing up his name out of the blue?
As soon as Monika settles into her new home, her condition starts to get worse. And even more terrifying, whatever is affecting her seems to be spreading to the other residents. Something has attached itself to Monika and it won’t rest until it’s tormented her and everyone around her into the ground.
The opening moments aside, The Home takes place solidly in the present, with no flashbacks or troubling dreams to illustrate past abuse or trauma. Instead, key pieces of information are revealed through dialogue and quiet moments of rage. Joel’s sexuality is brought into focus when his mom abruptly shares she thought he would die of AIDS. Phone calls with his old best friend or his golden child older brother reveal how people perceive and speak about and to Joel. The script is a masterclass in show not tell to craft a snapshot of a specific hellish moment in time for a man and his sick mother.
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While the script is very smart in how it navigates drama and horror elements, there are a few loose threads left hanging that keep The Home from being wholly satisfying. It’s almost as if certain moments were just thrown in for shock value, without returning back to explain what those moments had to do with the larger story at hand. The story speaks for itself in how it addresses bodily autonomy, repressed memories, making it a phenomenal double feature with the recent release The Rule Of Jenny Pen.
Oros carries the film as a sad gay man just trying to do the right thing while also drowning his fear in liquor and pills. He obsessively runs his fingers through his hair trying to ground himself as he manically paces his old room. Oros embodies Joel with a quiet desperation that’ll shatter your heart with each swig of rum and each attempt to reach his sick mother. You don’t need the details of what happened to Joel and his family; Oros etches that pain across his face as he embodies Joel.
The Home is surprisingly honest and raw in its construction of an unconventional possession movie. It’s not necessarily trying to make a grand statement, but instead wants to shatter your heart and really make you feel something. And feel something you will. The Home may feel familiar in its themes of familial trauma, but a smart script and stellar central performance from Oros help the film stand apart. More sad horror movies about emotional queers on the edge of sanity, please.
Summary
The Home may feel familiar in its themes of familial trauma, but a smart script and stellar central performance help the film stand apart.
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