Dream Home is a Rare Breed of Slasher
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Any slasher can sling blood, but Dream Home is the best kind of slasher film that can make you care for and even root for the killer. All she wants is that EXACT apartment. Is that so wrong?
Written by James "Crypticpsych" Lasome
February 13, 2011
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Release: May 13, 2010 (Hong Kong), February 9, 2011 (US VOD)
Directed by: Ho-Cheung Pang
Written by: Ho-Cheung Pang (Story and Screenplay), Kwok Cheung Tsang (Screenplay), and Chi-Man Wan (Screenplay)
Starring:
Josie Ho as Chang Lai-Sheung
Vivian Leung as Young Sheung
Paw Hee Ching as Sheung's Mother
Chui Siu Keung Norman as Sheung's Father
Welcome to late 2000s Hong Kong. Housing prices are skyrocketing with apartments and flats with lake views going for particularly exorbitant prices. Sheung (Ho) desperately wants a flat she and her brother found. It has a seaview, like she promised her grandfather before his death, and it will help her finally fulfill a promise she made to her late mother (Ching). She's wanted it ever since she was a child (Leung), affected by urbanization projects and forced government evictions. Unfortunately, no matter what she tries to do to get the exorbitant price, it always remains just out of reach. She is even certain she has enough at one point… only to have the sellers back out because they suddenly think the apartment's worth more. As her options dwindle, she comes to the slow realization that there's only one… very violent alternative left.
The closest descriptor that fully encompasses what Dream Home (aka Wai dor lei ah yut ho) is is "Slasher Drama". What Pang basically gives the viewer is a normal, average woman. Pang then gives her a backstory that weaves in and out of the movie, as the timeline is nonlinear. You see her growing up, losing a friend to forced eviction. You see her mother die. You see her father become ill and be unable to get coverage. Through it all though, you see that she desperately, badly wants this apartment with a lakeview and, most importantly, you understand WHY. Sheung is not some supernatural force in this; she's a living, breathing woman who wants nothing more than the small real estate piece that she's worked her whole life for. When her full backstory is revealed, the viewer completely understands what she's doing and, on some level, maybe accepts and forgives her violent, bloody vengeance. And no, it's not a spoiler to say what she ends up doing as the movie tells you this about 15 minutes in.
SPEAKING of bloody vengeance, Dream Home is packing enough pints to�be more than memorable. 
The body count in this ranks alongside any typical 80s slasher, and all of the kills are unique, resourceful, violent, and bloody. This is not the sort of film that cuts away. Shots in the head, slit throats, evisceration, wooden planks through the mouth, stabbings, and a particularly nasty, dangerously un-PC kill involving a pregnant woman, a plastic bag, and a vacuum cleaner: Dream Home has it all in the murder department, and it all looks professional and fantastic. The movie even seems to go out of its way to throw in a bunch of characters ripe for the slaughter that are drugged out, drunk, and having sex. The slasher half of this film is, quite simply, the best part of 80s horror made modern and filmed brilliantly.
Acting-wise, actress/singer/producer Josie Ho is phenomenal in the starring role and is more than able to carry this story. All of her drama scenes have some degree of depth to them because she comes across�as very believable and human. Even as she is forced by her situation to do some things of questionable morality even before her night of horrors, the viewer kind of still accepts them, a testament to how likeable and pitiable her performance makes the character. In addition, when she DOES go all murderous, her
character has a ruthless coldness that is balanced with a few moments where she shows some degree of disgust at what's she's been forced to do to realize her dreams. She's also human, sometimes having to fight for the kill. All in all, a great, multi-faceted, deep performance.
I recommend Dream Home highly, but I should point out two flaws this film has. The smaller flaw is that some may not like the few political shots this film takes (e.g. Cheung's father's health insurance problems, a late reference to the subprime mortage crisis). Most of the film does not come across as an overt political hit-job, but some may not like the few shots it does have in it. Far greater of an issue is the fact that, while both the dramatic and slasher stories work well individually, the flashbacks to her past in the nonlinear story seem, at times, to be out of order. As a result, I'm a little confused on the order of events from her past, an issue that hurts an otherwise great, original slasher flick.
Overall, Dream Home is beyond worth your time. Freddy and Jason are great, but sometimes we all need a slasher who we actually care about as a person, a la Behind the Mask. Ho's performance as Cheung fits that bill. It's unfortunate that its slightly fumbled nonlinear storyline prevents me from rating Dream Home better than this, but it's definitely a property still worth putting a down payment on.
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