Day 28 

Dream Home (2010)

Directed by Pang Ho-cheung

Dream Home begins with a young woman, Cheng Lai, on a murderous rampage through a high-end apartment complex in Hong Kong. As her rampage continues we learn via flashbacks why she is killing people, and what this all has to do with modern economics, gentrification, and the real estate bubble of the late 2000s. In a twist on the standard formula, Dream Home is a slasher where the slasher is our protagonist and that works pretty well here because Cheng Lai is, perhaps now even more so than when this first came out, such a relatable protagonist. We spend a lot of time with Cheng Lai, as a child, a young adult, and a working professional, which, even if the plot can get a little confusing at times because you’re switching between timelines, is an effective way to really get in her head and humanize her. They knew they had to do that though, because the kills in this movie, oh boy, are they something to behold.

Dream Home lets you know right up front that this is going to be an intensely violent film and then it never lets up. The kills are graphic, over the top, and on more than one occasion completely cross the line into bad taste. So, as you can tell, I was a pretty big fan of that. There’s some weird dark humor that comes up with some of the kills, particularly late in the movie, and that kind of threw me considering just how graphic the violence in the film is, but it doesn’t detract from those sequences. What I can’t stop thinking about with Dream Home is how depressingly timeless the satire is, it feels so relevant right now and to me, that’s the sign of writing that has a slightly deeper understanding of the broad applications of social commentary. This isn’t for everybody, there’s one scene in particular that will turn a lot of people off, one that reportedly made a few people throw up at screenings of Dream Home, but audiences who enjoy these kinds of movies will get a lot out of it. We’d definitely recommend this!