Dream Home 

 

 

 

 

 

Dream Home is a 2010 Hong Kong satire/slasher film written and co-directed by Pang-Ho Cheung and starring Josie Ho.

 

This film tells the story of Cheng-Lai Sheung. An unsuccessful telemarketer who works two jobs in order to save money for a flat with an ocean view on Victoria Bay. Her lifelong dream home. And she will go to any lengths to obtain what she desires. So much so that when her ailing father is diagnosed with Mesothelioma and she finds out that the expensive surgery he needs will not be covered by the insurance company, she refuses to use the money she has saved. Soon after, instead of giving her father the breathing treatment he needs, she lets him die, gasping for air.

 

Using the money she gets from her father's life insurance she makes a deposit on her dream apartment. She returns to the realtor to pay the balance and discovers that the sellers have changed their mind on the sale due to the ever rising cost of real estate. They think they can sell it for more money and return her deposit. After working so hard to make her dream a reality and coming so close, this news sends her spiraling out of control. She then begins methodically killing the innocent tenants of the high rise who would have been her neighbors in a bloody, violent spree. It turns out that she's rather handy with the tools in her Father's tool belt and if there are no more vacancies in the building, she'll create some. Thereby reducing the property value at the same time. One way or another she's going to have what she wants.

 

 

 

All in all I thought this film was brilliant. I am one who enjoys hardcore blood, gore and violence in film and I was not at all disappointed in that regard. This film was visually stunning. There are some really amazing death scenes (in fact, some of the best I have seen in a while) that literally made me unable to sit still. Some of them were very original and the effects are incredible, with limited CGI. I also really enjoyed the departure from the stereotypical killer we see in so many horror films. No psycho stalker/deranged killer in this  one. Just someone who goes off the deep end. There's something genuinely horrific about an average person becoming so obsessed with something that it pushes them over the edge of sanity and into an unbridled murderous frenzy.

 

Josie Ho brings incredible life and believability to this character. You get just a glimpse of her underlying lunacy that no one around her seems to see and you are sucked in. You want to know what will this sociopath do next.

 

 

 

          Pang-Ho Cheung's direction in this film is genius. It's got a sort of ethereal feeling to it and I love how it addresses the looming global financial crisis and the cut-throat real estate situation in Hong Kong. He combines social commentary and over the top gore seemingly effortlessly. This film was extremely well done. It's beautifully shot and it really delivers. I would recommend this to anyone, however some of the death scenes may be a little too intense for some.  But If you are a gore hound like myself, you really should see this if you get the chance.

I give it 5/5.