Blu-ray Review: Sweet Home (2015)

Not since [REC] have we seen a Spanish Horror movie set in such a creepy location, as the one used to house the action in Sweet Home. There's just something about old, dilapidated buildings that make us uneasy... and it's not like the building was set in an out of the way locale or something, no, it's right there on a busy street in a big city, and it's still creepy as hell.

What goes on inside of that building, so close to "everyday life" is even creepier. The real-life statistic that flash onscreen before the movie begins makes it even more so.

Sweet Home is the story of the tenants of an old, creepy apartment building in Spain, who are forcibly evicted from their homes by hooded men, so that the landlord can sell the property. And by evicted, we mean brutally murdered, cut into pieces, dissolved away with liquid nitrogen, smashed to pieces with a hammer, and then presumably chucked in a dumpster somewhere around the way.

AT LEAST THEY WRAP THEM UP ALL NICE AND NEAT BEFORE THEY DISPOSE OF THEIR CORPSES.

When sexy real estate agent Alicia shows up at the property to evaluate its worth, or some such shit, she befriends an old man named Ramon, who is all like "I ain't leaving!" Alicia laughs him off, then decides to set up a romantic slumber party in one of the abandoned apartments for she and her lame boyfriend. Because what classy woman doest want to be romantic is a skeezy rat trap like this?

"HAPPY LAST BIRTHDAY EVER!"

During their sexy interlude, the lights go out, and three masked men enter the building, and begin to evict kill any tenants still residing there. When the men evict old Ramon (by making him pass away), Alicia is distraught, and realizes that her idea to have a slumber party in this creepy shit-hole may have been a really bad one.

Attempted survival ensues.

EVICTION AIN'T EASY.

Sweet Home is a very decent movie, if a troubled one. It's got a great location, a compelling Final Girl in Ingrid Garcia Jonsson, and it's got just enough intensity to have kept us on edge. It's also reasonably gory, which I suppose is a bonus. The movie has a good energy about it, and the cat and mouse game between the killers and Alicia and Simon is at times pretty intense.

If nothing else. Sweet Home is engaging.

SCREAM LOUDER, NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU.

The big issue that we had with the movie is that there's nothing particularly new going on here, and it relies on some pretty familiar tropes to allow it to carry on. Those instances, combined with some dumb-ass decisions by the main characters, frustrated us a bit.

• Bad Guys almost gone and out of our heros' way? Time for a cell phone to ring. 
• Sneaking around for you life, while killers are searching for you? Rattle a heavily-chained door and scream at it. 
• No one hears a heavily-chained door being shaken by a screaming woman in an empty building. It's almost like the the masked men were so inept at their thug jobs, that after a little while, they didn't seem like much of a threat anymore. Of course then "The Liquidator" shows up, and he takes care of business. Maybe they should have just went with him from the beginning. At least he was creepy.
• And I'm still not sure what was with that elevator scene. Weren't they on the first floor? Were there NO windows to get out of?
• And why not just climb out of the window to the ground below? They climbed everywhere else.

Some of these issues may come down to cultural differences, as I've come to understand that buildings like these, and the forced evictions, are a fairly common practice in Spain, so our lack of understanding certain nuances of Spanish culture may be why they took us out of the movie a bit. But they did.

THE "PARTY" BAG.

Having a romantic evening in abandoned building is never advised. Also, the eviction laws in Spain are really harsh.

WELL, MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU COULD... OH WAIT, THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME, WILL THERE?

Annoying tropes aside, Sweet Home is a capable Home Invasion thriller that boasts a solid lead actress, some genuine scares, and some pretty good gore, when it happens. It's definitely worth an October watch if you can get your hands on a copy.

C+

Sweet Home is available now on Region B/2 Blu-ray. *No word yet on when it will hit other regions, so make sure you have a Region Free Blu-ray Player if you're looking to order this one.

Ingrid Garcia Jonsson would make any home sweeter.