Dream Home (2010)

Cast: Josie Ho, Michelle Ye and Eason Chan

Writers: Ho-Cheung Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang, Chi-Man Wan

Director: Ho-Cheung Pang

At first glance at the poster and title you probably wouldn't think much of it, how can a movie called "Dream Home" possibly fit in? You'd probably think "it's a little suspense film with nothing to offer" like a lot of movies we get these days. You also wouldn't expect for this film to be a nice gory slasher film either. Well not much in a traditional sense of slasher but it actually is. There are a lot of films in Asian cinema where the gore comes at you out of nowhere and those that are just thrown into your lap. "Dream Home" is one that catches you off guard and is very well one of the best films of this new year. I will give a brief description and a review about the film and why this sickly, twisted masterpiece should not be missed. One reason amongst all is, it's based on a true story. Which should be a cause of concern cause this could happen anywhere and more than likely has.

Although the film is in select theaters now in the U.S. "Dream Home" was originally released in spring of 2010 and well as we know, international releases come out later. I prefer to use the original year rather than the current later release cause I'm very obsessive compulsive at times and I like to be accurate with little details as to not lie to my readers like many writes do. I had the opportunity to watch this, not in theaters but from the comfort of my living room as do many of you who may be reading this. Thank to IFC On Demand, you get to watch films they've released right on your home. Which is both good and band. Good, because if you had no clue about certain releases, release dates, screening schedules and so on, you can simply order and have the film to your viewing content for 24 hours. Bad because it pushes more great films to the side while we're raped by Hollywood bull cocky films that lack a lot of integrity and tend to rip off plenty of films primarily in the foreign market.

The film is about a young woman whom is working her ass of to save up enough money to move out on her own. Seeing that the job market and prices suck do to the economical crisis, Things for her seem to only get worse as they get better. Taking care of a sickly father and her younger brother, working as a telemarketer, a shoe sales person and even as a call girl, she seems to be dealing with struggles that are more trouble than they're worth and it begins to build up. After finding a beautiful apartment and discussing details with the Realtor, she decides this is the place she wants and all is said and done. Until the landlord decides to raise the price on her and she decides to lower the value on the building by brutally murdering it's occupants.

The plot to the film is crazy, it has the force of realism and shows pretty much how anyone, no matter how sane or strong can just take and take until they snap and decide to go after what they want by any means necessary. You definitely grow sympathy for the character as moments of her life which basically caused her current reaction are played back and it  really helps the character development as well as the overall film. It's not just a good old fashioned blood and guts flick, it also has a very solid story, like many foreign titles as of lately. The pace is good, you don't wait too long for something violent too happen (if you're just watching for blood and guts) and the blending with the economical crisis is an extra plus cause it shows that we're (U.S.A) not the only one effected by this, you even learn a bit about the currency difference between China and the U.S and would be at awe with how a lot of the people out there are truly suffering.

The death scenes are a blend of "I've seen that before but not like this" to "well that's pretty creative" and most of them are pretty bloody. I can say that many reviewers are over hyping the expectations of the viewer but the film will not disappoint the gore hound. You have a nice body count also and all of the victims are unsuspecting which makes this even more brilliant and the killer is a female which is a major plus and has been the thing for plenty of films in the past but has been coming back in effect over the past few years. I personally feel "High Tension" was one to set those gears into motion as far as interpreting the psychological horror with intense violence and having the antagonist a female. It's good to have a female antagonist away from the whole rape/revenge cause it sets more of a tone of compassion in the character in an intense way of course.

Picture Source: www.bloody-disgusting.com

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the movie. I didn't enjoy the fact that my cold medicine kicked in and i became drowsy, but even that could not pull me away from this gripping slice of gory heaven. It was filmed right and my only complaints were the minor CGI sequences that are plenty forgivable as well as understandable and one scene with a highway and city shot where you can clearly tell a model was used for it. But I thought it was rather funny and found it to be cute and those minor details still can't stab me away from giving "Dream Home" a house warmer rating of five dead neighbors out of five.

5/5