{"id":21954,"date":"2025-07-25T02:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21954\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T02:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:03:10","slug":"why-pete-davidson-was-perfect-for-elderly-horror-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21954\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pete Davidson Was Perfect for Elderly Horror Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThe Purge\u201d series writer and director James DeMonaco has never shied away from political themes in his movies. But he had a whopper of an idea that led to his latest film, \u201cThe Home<\/a>,\u201d which he directed and co-wrote with Adam Cantor. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis generation being raped by previous generations coalesced into this idea of this old age community that wasn\u2019t what it seemed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the film, Pete Davidson<\/a> plays Max, a rough but kind-hearted young man sentenced to community service at a retirement home. But he quickly learns that the residents \u2014\u00a0played by veteran actors like John Glover and Bruce Altman \u2014\u00a0and the facility itself hold some dark and deadly secrets.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeedless to say, DeMonaco says this horror movie ultimately underscores tension between generations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is this underlying theme in the film about how the previous generations are now robbing this generation of many resources on the planet, and it seemed fitting to do it in an old age community,\u201d he says. \u201cI always found in movies that old people are quite often depicted as cute and cuddly and nice, and I always found that to be not always true. If you\u2019re an asshole when you\u2019re young, you\u2019ll probably grow up to be an elder asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPete Davidson and James DeMonaco filming \u201cThe Home.\u201d
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Giesbrecht<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the best actor to represent the younger generation, DeMonaco immediately thought of Davidson, his old friend and fellow Staten Island native. The pair met when Davidson was a waiter at Nucci\u2019s, a local Italian spot, and would talk with DeMonaco, who had just made the first \u201cPurge,\u201d about the entertainment business.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two remained friends, including frequent writing sessions where DeMonaco would walk down the street to Davidson\u2019s mother\u2019s house so they could bounce ideas off each other.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen Adam and I wrote \u2018The Home,\u2019 we wrote it for Pete,\u201d he says. \u201cKnowing Pete as a human, not just as a celebrity, we knew he was a very soulful man who could do more than just comedy, which I think he showed in \u2018King of Staten Island,\u2019 which came out during COVID, and \u2018Big Time Adolescence,\u2019 which he\u2019s got some nice beats in. We just knew Pete was right for his world. Pete represents the generation of now, the younger generation. So it felt right pairing him against the John Glover generation, the Boomer generation. There was something generational about Pete \u2014 he represented something that I thought was important when this war between the generations happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the tense script, Davidson\u2019s humor, which he\u2019s cultivated through stand-up and years on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d would frequently shine through while filming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted it completely straight,\u201d DeMonaco says. \u201cPete was like, \u2018JD, let\u2019s do one take where I\u2019m funny.\u2019 So we\u2019d always do one where he was riffing with some of the older actors, and it was very funny. We tried it in editing. We always have that one take readily available to try to push the humor, but it seemed to break tone. If we went too far, it always felt like we were pushing it almost into sketch world, so that was the fine line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, despite the themes explored, DeMonaco was focused on making \u201cThe Home\u201d stand on its own as a scary movie with big twists and turns. If it makes the audience think, all the better.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI try to layer my movies without being preachy or proselytizing with some social-political content,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I pushed it too far in certain movies, to be quite honest. In certain \u2018Purge\u2019 movies, my hatred for certain things might have snuck too far into the narrative. Understandably, I don\u2019t think audiences want to be preached to by some fucking guy from Staten Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Home\u201d releases in theaters July 25 via Lionsgate. Watch the trailer below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Purge\u201d series writer and director James DeMonaco has never shied away from political themes in his movies.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337,18225,18226],"class_list":{"0":"post-21954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-pete-davidson","13":"tag-the-home"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}