Horror Pick: Dream Home (2010)
You aren’t ready for Dream Home. Honestly. Most of you reading this are probably American horror fans safely shielded from the nasty, vicious world of Asian exploitation horror – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but trust me when I say you ain’t seen nothing yet. Dream Home is a perfect example of the wacky absurdity and absolutely vile visuals that Japanese/Korean/Chinese filmmakers utilize, as horror is a sacred art form over there. Sure, I could throw a movie like Tokyo Gore Police out there (which I inevitably will someday), but that’s for when I’m feeling a bit sillier – Dream Home is gritty, dirty, absolutely harrowing horror filmmaking, light on exploitation and heavy on psychological – for lack of a better word – fuckery.
The plot is rather simple – Josie Ho plays an obsessed woman (Cheng Li-sheung) who dreams of owning one specific apartment home. Working towards her goal, the deal unfortunately falls through, but this doesn’t stop Cheng from plotting her own scheme. Knowing how pricy the apartment is and how in demand the location has become, Cheng comes up with a simple solution – start killing her would-be neighbors to drive the price down. Yup. Apartment by apartment the complex descends into a bloody hell, all at the hands of a disillusioned realty monster.
Simplicity may make Dream Home sound like a laugh, but creator Ho-Cheung Pang’s horrific brutality creates a truly twisted killer in Cheng, someone ending lives for the perfect apartment building. Trust me, I know how damn hard it is to find your dream residence, I live in New York City – but to kill because of that insatiable hunger for open spaces, a proper kitchen, and the best damn view around? Josie Ho is a wonderfully demented murderer who only becomes better as her killer instincts are shown, a enigmatic criminal we almost fall in love with – until her unspeakable nature is revealed.
Then there are Dream Home‘s kill sequences. Think about all the people who live in apartment buildings – young professionals, pregnant mothers, working class Joes – and imagine how much they deserve to die. They don’t, right? They’re just living their lives. It’s a shame, because then Cheng walks in an starts hacking her way through tenants in the sickest ways possible. Splintered wood, spilled intestines, suffocated women – each scene commands horrific beauty, but there’s also a gut-wrenching emotion attached. Some are silly and fun, yes, but others will leave you feeling nauseous, like you just witness something all-too-real, and that’s what horror is about. It keeps us sane, knowing we possess the moral compass to be offended by something fake, right?
Dream Home ain’t some PG-13 Paranormal Activity sequel, so just be warned. When you’re ready to join the horror big leagues, Cheng Li-sheung will be waiting…