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Here’s an episode for Slasher fans… In Episode 011 of Considering Horror Cinema, your late-night Horror host, Jay of the Dead brings you a 10 out of 10-rated Horror movie, a modern Slasher from Hong Kong by Pang Ho-cheung, called Dream Home (2011). Buy it sight unseen, if you love Slashers and gore films. This episode also features a little bit of a scandal in which Jay reissues an excerpted interview from BillChete’s Horror on the Go, when BillChete interviewed Jay of the Dead during a 2015 debate about Horror Genre Classification. (Listen to the episode for more explanation, but in short, Jay is still trying to get in touch with BillChete to get him on this show and figured this might be a good way.) But to be clear, the content of the interview belongs entirely to BillChete and Horror on the Go.
Don’t forget to subscribe for free, so you don’t miss a special July 30 surprise release, as well as the Movie Podcast Weekly hosts appearing as guests on Considering the Cinema to review “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” with Jason. Also, you won’t want to miss this year’s two upcoming “Best of the Decades” shows: Top 10 Horror Movies of the 2010s Decade — and — Top 10 Movies of the 2010s (all genre), slated for late December, early January releases, respectively. Both of these episodes will include panels of guest hosts who will join Jay to bring you the very best of the 2010s decade. These shows will be FREE and only available here through Considering the Cinema Podcast.
Thanks for listening to Considering the Cinema Podcast and Considering Horror Cinema, The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Movie Podcasting… Don’t forget: You can call the new voicemail number at (801) 215-9704 or email Jay at ConsideringTheCinema@gmail.com or post a comment in the show notes for this episode.
SHOW NOTES: Considering Horror Cinema Ep. 011
[ 00:00:00 ] – Introduction
– Considering the Cinema presents: Considering Horror Cinema Ep. 011
– Agenda
[ 00:01:46 ] – BillChete’s Horror on the Go excerpt: Horror Genre Classification
— Explanatory preface
– BillChete interviews Jay of the Dead on the June 1, 2015 release of Horror on the Go
*Note: This interview solely belongs to BillChete. If you have questions or concerns, please email Jay at ConsideringTheCinema@gmail.com.
[ 00:41:16 ] – Dream Home (2011)
Jay of the Dead = 10 ( Buy it! )
–Wrap-Up
— Jay of the Dead makes a guest appearance on Father and Son Watch Horror Movies with Pastor Matt and his son, Jackson, to review Jay’s No. 3 all-time favorite Horror movie, “The Descent” (2005). It’s a must-listen!
— Watch for a very special July 30, 2019 release of Considering the Cinema!
— Watch for a Considering the Cinema review of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” with the hosts of Movie Podcast Weekly as guests! (Releasing sometime around Aug. 2, 2019.)
Links for this episode:
On Twitter: @ConsiderCinema
Film Blog / Audio Podcast: ConsideringTheCinema.com
HORROR-Only Content: ConsideringHorrorCinema.com
Email: ConsideringTheCinema@gmail.com
Voicemail: (801) 215-9704
Letterboxd: Letterboxd.com/ConsiderCinema
Genre classification can be tricky in today’s cinema, but this provides for film makers to produce any types of films. If the story can be cohesive and entertaining then they are free to express what they like as long as we can enjoy the films in the end. Thanks for sharing this and I hope you are able to connect with Bill. Your mutual respect is clear. Still, when a person goes off the grid, it’s usually for good reasons. I’ll be praying for him and family.
I’m surprised by your review of Dream Home. The cover art and caption, “Hilarious, Outrageously Stylish”, doesn’t really match up. It’s currently $13.82 on Amazon right now with a retail of $19.99, so not a terrible price. Your comparison against The Prowler makes this compelling. If I end up buying it, I’ll let you know it if lives up to your 10 out of 10 review.
I’ll have to check out Pastor Matt’s podcast. I’ve heard several people mention it, Land of the Creeps and of course HMP.
Thanks for the episode.
Just saw “Dream Home.” I didn’t quite have Jay’s perfect experience with this, though I understand where he’s coming from with a 10 out of 10 rating. This movie should be getting more attention from our community. It’s a brilliant slasher premise, and the kills are over-the-top without the filmmakers ever letting it stray into a horror-comedy feel.
I came away knowing Ho Cheung-Pang is a director I need to keep my eye on.
Best,
VV
Thank you Victor. It’s always difficult judging foreign films, as you just don’t know what you are going to get with the final product. I’ve had some unique experiences with them. The review of the film is so enthusiastic and we have had so many classics within the slasher sub-genre as well.
I appreciate your feedback here and will definitely be checking this film out for myself.
Thanks so much,
Sean Smith
I rented Dream Home last night on Google Play for $2.99. Let me start with what I liked about it. I liked the graphic kills and the practical effects, which were good. I liked the run time of just over 90 minutes. The pacing wasn’t bad and the movie moved along without being boring. (warning: spoilers ahead)
Generally speaking, I do not like it when in a movie, you know who the killer is even before you actually see the film. In the poster and trailer, there is no confusion that the killer is the main character and takes both the protagonist and antagonist roles, since the whole story revolves around her and her experiences.
In most slashers, the killer is a mystery, but even where you have established lore in a slasher like a Halloween or a Friday the 13th, there is still much uncertainty.
With Jason or Michael, even though you know they are the killer, they still wear a mask, you don’t know what they look like and have an otherworldly quality that makes them more then simply a man with a mask, but an indestructible foe who can’t be killed. Michael Myers scares me.
My point is, even though the main character in Dream Home is a ruthless killer, I was never scared of her. She was able to make work of her female victims, but you see examples of when she has to kill the males, we see that they are ready to fight her when they are given a chance to respond. She has to kill by surprise, when she has the most advantages. But you give these folks an opportunity to respond, I say she gets killed more than 50% of the time.
No prior evil. In a slasher, we get the prior evil convention because we need to understand the drive for revenge by the killer. In Friday the 13th, there is no doubt why Mrs. Voorhees kills the counselors. They were the cause of her son’s preventable death. We can wrap our minds around that concept and understand the motivation.
With Dream Home, the main characters motivation is buying an apartment with a seaside view. This premise simply does not work. She could easily move somewhere else that is more affordable, which is what anyone else would do. This does not provide a satisfactory motivation to slaughter 11 random people. Anyone who is disturbed enough to commit this crime, would have had more issues and more history of twisted behavior over time. The film says this was based on true events. I’d love to know the criminal and or mental health history of the original perpetrator that was the inspiration for this movie.
I didn’t enjoy them intercutting between the two timelines, one in the night of the bloodshed and then her past life experiences that led up to her decision to kill for her apartment. This technique can work if the story is compelling. In this case, her previous life experiences were not interesting or captivating enough for this to be effective. The only thing it did was space out the kill sequences, so they didn’t all happen at once. It’s part of the weak story dynamic that this film has.
It takes way too long for the victims to die. They are performing almost cartoonish performances that came off as very hammy. With such violet and fatal injuries, it just took too long and wasn’t believable to me.
The main character is a POS. I didn’t care for her at all and wanted to see her get killed right away. She blames her father for her financial situation and then murders him by refusing oxygen to him. I really wanted her to die right then. They try to portray her as sympathetic, but we all know she is a worthless POS.
If this was some message about the rich keeping the poor down, the film fails fantastically with this character.
The ending of film wasn’t great. There is no final girl. She seemingly gets away with her crimes, with a news story about the crashing housing market, which isn’t a concern for her since she received all that insurance money from murdering her father.
Despite my criticisms, I didn’t hate the film. It does have some redeeming qualities, which I mentioned earlier. However, I have no need to see this again. As a slasher, it’s okay at best. For me, it’s a 6 out of 10 and a rental, since it is worth seeing at least one time.
I do appreciate the recommendation and your enthusiasm Jay. I agree with your opinions most of the time, but it is difficult for me to understand anyone giving this a perfect score, when it has so many flaws. What is further interesting is that I find that I agree with both Josh and Dave Becker almost all the time, but I disagree with you and Joel Robertson more frequently on movies in general. If I had to place a percentage on this, I would say I agree with Josh and Dave 99% of the time and I agree with you and Joel 90+% of the time.
It was still cool to take your recommendation and see the film for myself to compare your experience against my own and to see where there is both agreement and conflict in those experiences. I look forward to your next one.
Thanks Jay!
I recommended this film to Land Of The Creeps on their Killer Women episode, and I don’t believe either Greg or Dave saw it. I wonder if my recommendation influenced Jay to give the film a shot.
Love your work Jay, keep it up the recommendations for us plz!