By Simon Thompson
Director/writer Matthias Johannson Skoglund’s The Home is an atmospheric yet meandering piece of horror which, despite having some positive elements in some strong acting and a well cultivated sense of tension, these are not enough to overcome the narrative’s various pacing issues.
The plot of The Home follows Joel (Philip Oros) a young man and a recovering addict who returns to his hometown after many years of being away to look after his elderly mother Monika (Anki Liden), who is struggling with dementia.
Although Joel successfully manages to place his mother in a care home, this is far from the end of his troubles as various demons from his childhood resurface, causing him to believe some kind of malevolent supernatural force is haunting him and his mother. Due to his past issues with substance abuse, however, Joel constantly doubts the idea and with his mother’s cognitive functions declining is forced to confront what is haunting them alone.
The acting in The Home is solid across the board. Philip Oros gives an understated performance as Joel, convincingly rendering his inner turmoil on the screen, but it’s Anki Liden who steals the show as Monika. Liden gut wrenchingly portrays a person undergoing a severe loss of their physical and mental faculties with an uncanny amount of believability, and it’s her performance above all else which holds the narrative together.
The cinematography by Malin LQ is naturalistic and low key, allowing a nice juxtaposition between some of the movie’s more nightmarish and surreal imagery with the small town domestic surroundings that the story takes place in. Setting a horror movie in a mundane or suburban environment is a time honoured tradition for a reason, because by contrasting the familiar with the horrific, you create a strong sense of discomfort in an audience immediately – a fact that Skoglund and co-writer Mats Strandberg are acutely aware of.
The real issues with The Home are to be found in its pacing. Characters have a variation of the same conversation about three or four times, scenes that don’t really add any atmosphere or drive the plot in any meaningful way drag on for far too long, and despite the film containing multiple effective horror scenes the plot still doesn’t feel as if there is any sense of urgency to it.
Overall, The Home, while having a lot going for it in some aspects, is a movie which sadly cannot overcome its noticeable flaws. However there is a lot to like about The Home, so if you’re a forgiving sort who wants to sit down with a piece of Euro-horror then The Home might just be the movie for you.
The Home screened as part of SXSW Film Festival 2025.
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