A gory and relentless slasher film with a social message is the best way to describe Dream Home, a flick from Hong Kong director Ho-Cheung Pang. The pic tells the story of a young woman (Josie Ho) whom is determined to get a place at an expensive apartment complex, no matter what it takes. Working two jobs and saving up for years, the woman finally gets the opportunity to get setup at her "dream home", that is, until the owners decide to kick up the price at the last minute. Eventually new owners move into the pad, leaving the woman no choice but to murder all the residents on the floor! (naturally!).

The movie starts off with the death of a security guard and then flashes back to the woman's busy life before she got to that point and that's pretty much how the rest of the film plays out. We go back and forth from the killing of the residents to how she reached this point of no return, essentially going as far back to when she was a child where her neighbors and family were forced to move out of their own homes due to the government. This is an interesting look at the inside of the woman's head and reasoning behind her madness and unsympathetic approach towards killing all these seemingly innocent people.

Although I did like the concept and approach they took by going back and forth from the killings, it does cause the pacing to suffer at times, especially during the more lengthy back-story sequences, where you'll find yourself wishing they would just go back to her killing off the residents already. Though, it's nice to see a slasher attempt to explain the logic behind the madness in a more interesting take than revenge -- a simple and common occurrence behind why these crazies do what they do in our beloved sub-genre. In this movie the economic crises and government influence play a huge role in the woman's insanity.

It's refreshing to see the film's ballsy approach towards the killings, rarely shying away from the deaths, and even killing a pregnant woman, which was something I definitely didn't expect to see. It just goes to show how foreign filmmakers are more willing to go that extra step to show the insanity of the killer, as opposed to the normally cookie-cutter American genre efforts, where the studios usually frowns on such things. We're also treated to a hefty amount of gore and the red stuff, like for instance one scene involving a victims intestines spilling out and another where a guy gets his penis cut off, just to name a few.

I'm also keen on slashers where the killer is not only fairly ordinary, but they also care very little to disguise themselves. We get that, plus the fact that the killer is a female, another aspect we don't see much in the sub-genre. Because of these reasons the woman doesn't always have things go in her favor and finds herself in quite a few tense situations when attempting to take out a new victim. Of course that doesn't stop her from straight up going up into the homes and taking out anyone that gets in her way!

Despite some pacing issues at times, Dream Home is a refreshing take on the normally tired sub-genre and not only offers an interesting concept behind the killings, but also gives us a lot of gory eye-candy and deaths to boot. Added with an uncommon killer and you've got yourself an above-average slasher. Worth a look.