Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

Year: 1981

Runtime: 85 mins

Language: English

Director: Nettie Peña

HorrorHorror

An escaped mental patient hijacks a station wagon and crashes the Bradley family’s Thanksgiving dinner, intent on turning their festive celebration into chaos. As the unsuspecting hosts sit down to eat, his violent plan threatens to ruin their holiday.

Warning: spoilers below!

Haven’t seen Home Sweet Home yet? This summary contains major spoilers. Bookmark the page, watch the movie, and come back for the full breakdown. If you're ready, scroll on and relive the story!

Timeline & Setting – Home Sweet Home (1981)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Home Sweet Home (1981). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Los Angeles, California, Harold Bradley's ranch (outskirts of Los Angeles)

The story centers on a Thanksgiving gathering at Harold Bradley's ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The remote, rural setting creates isolation as a deadly intruder disrupts the holiday feast. The location shifts from a festive home to a crime scene, emphasizing vulnerability and danger in a familiar space.

🏚️ Ranch 🏙️ Suburban LA 🦃 Thanksgiving

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:56

Main Characters – Home Sweet Home (1981)

Meet the key characters of Home Sweet Home (1981), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Angel Bradley

Harold's young daughter who becomes a focal point for the stakes as the danger unfolds. Her presence anchors the survivors’ hope, and she helps trigger the police response, highlighting innocence caught in a terrifying situation.

👶 Innocence 🧭 Hope 🔒 Safety

Harold Bradley

The patriarch hosting Thanksgiving at the ranch. He embodies a protective yet controlling figure, taking measures to secure the house as the danger grows. His death marks the collapse of the holiday's image of safety.

🎩 Patriarchy 🛡️ Authority 🪓 Violence

Linda

Harold's girlfriend who participates in the social circle of guests. She remains actively involved in the tense dynamics and shares in the peril as the intruder cuts power and violence escalates.

💃 Socialite 🧭 Navigation ⚠️ Danger

Wayne

Harold's business associate who tries to locate Harold outside, only to become another victim of the intruder's brutality. His death underscores how plans unravel in a crisis.

🧭 Resourcefulness ⚖️ Business ⚔️ Conflict

Maria

Wayne's girlfriend who becomes one of the victims during the chaos inside the house. Her demise adds to the mounting fear among the guests.

💞 Relationships 🧭 Tension 🩸 Brutality

Mistake Bradley

Harold's son, a Kiss Army soldier, who meets a gruesome death involving his own guitar and amplifier during the siege.

👦 Youth 🪪 Identity 🔊 Noise

Jennifer

A guest who fights back against the intruder and hides from danger. Her resilience and bravery stand out as a beacon of strength amid the terror.

🗡️ Resistance 🧭 Strategy 💪 Courage

Scott

Harold's tenant who discovers Maria's body and later becomes a target himself. He attempts to secure the house, illustrating the desperation of survivors.

🧭 Protector 🗡️ Violence 🕯️ Fear

Gail

Linda's friend who becomes lost and is slain by the intruder. Her fate amplifies the danger beyond the main house and in the surrounding area.

👭 Connection 🧭 Loss 🔪 Brutality

Jay Jones

An escaped mental patient and PCP addict who sabotages the party, stalking the guests throughout the ranch. His unpredictable violence drives the tension until the police intervene.

🧠 Psych 😨 Fear 🔪 Violence

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:56

Major Themes – Home Sweet Home (1981)

Explore the central themes of Home Sweet Home (1981), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🕯️ Staying Alive

The guests are thrust into a siege-like situation where survival hinges on quick thinking and courage. As danger closes in, ordinary routines crumble and people improvise to endure the night. The film uses the holiday setting to heighten the tension between safety and chaos, showing how fear can override reason.

🔪 Home Invasion

The house effectively becomes a trap as power is cut and doors are compromised. Strangers and acquaintances alike are forced into close-quarters confrontation with the intruder, transforming a feast into a violent fight for life. The intrusion exposes the fragility of security within a supposedly safe space.

👪 Family Ties

Tensions and loyalties within Harold's circle are tested under extreme pressure. The holiday gathering reveals how relationships can fray under fear, turning familiar faces into potential threats. The intrusion disrupts not just the night, but the fragile bonds of kinship and friendship.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:56

Mobile App Preview

Coming soon on iOS and Android

The Plot Explained Mobile App

From blockbusters to hidden gems — dive into movie stories anytime, anywhere. Save your favorites, discover plots faster, and never miss a twist again.

Sign up to be the first to know when we launch. Your email stays private — always.

Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Holiday horror movies like Home Sweet Home

Festive celebrations are violently shattered by an unstoppable threat.If you liked the brutal Thanksgiving invasion in Home Sweet Home, you'll enjoy these movies where festive holidays are violently disrupted. This list features similar slasher and home invasion stories set during Christmas, Halloween, and other celebrations, turning moments of joy into fights for survival.

tensebrutalchaoticunsettlingholiday settingclaustrophobicsuspensefulgrim

Narrative Summary

The narrative typically follows a simple, effective structure: an ordinary family or group prepares for a holiday, only to have their celebration violently interrupted by a killer or malevolent force. The familiar, often isolated setting becomes a prison, and the story becomes a tense game of survival against a relentless antagonist.

Why These Movies?

These movies are grouped by their core premise of subverting a holiday's warmth and safety with extreme violence. They share a high-intensity, fast-paced tone, focusing on the visceral fear of having one's sanctuary invaded during a time meant for peace and family.

Claustrophobic home invasion thrillers like Home Sweet Home

The safety of home is violated in a relentless siege of violence.For viewers who enjoyed the tense, confined terror of Home Sweet Home, this list gathers movies with similar home invasion plots. These films feature families or individuals fighting for their lives against intruders, creating a sense of relentless pressure and shattered safety in a familiar space.

claustrophobictensebrutalunsettlingsuspensefulisolationsurvivalchaotic

Narrative Summary

The narrative unfolds as a siege, where characters are cornered in their most personal space. There is minimal setup before the threat arrives, leading to a straightforward, high-stakes conflict. The focus is on the immediate physical and psychological terror of the invasion rather than complex mystery.

Why These Movies?

This thread groups films based on the shared, visceral experience of a home being violently invaded. They are united by a dark tone, high intensity, fast pacing, and a heavy emotional weight stemming from the violation of safety and the graphic violence that often ensues.

Unlock the Full Story of Home Sweet Home

Don't stop at just watching — explore Home Sweet Home in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what Home Sweet Home is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.

Home Sweet Home Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Home Sweet Home, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.

Home Sweet Home Summary

Home Sweet Home Timeline

Track the full timeline of Home Sweet Home with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.

Home Sweet Home Timeline

Home Sweet Home Spoiler-Free Summary

Get a quick, spoiler-free overview of Home Sweet Home that covers the main plot points and key details without revealing any major twists or spoilers. Perfect for those who want to know what to expect before diving in.

Home Sweet Home Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Home Sweet Home

Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Home Sweet Home: box office results, cast and crew info, production details, post-credit scenes, and external links — all in one place for movie fans and researchers.

More About Home Sweet Home

Similar Movies to Home Sweet Home

Discover movies like Home Sweet Home that share similar genres, themes, and storytelling elements. Whether you’re drawn to the atmosphere, character arcs, or plot structure, these curated recommendations will help you explore more films you’ll love.