Sweet Home review

Sweet Home is a monster show carried by its cast, and its ten episodes are worth it on that alone. Song Kang plays a withdrawn teenager who moves into a run-down apartment block just as the residents start turning into creatures shaped by whatever they wanted most, and the survivors seal themselves in. Lee Eung Bok directs it as horror melodrama rather than action: the monsters come and go, and the real subject is what a dozen frightened neighbours do to each other. That is where it is strongest. Lee Do Hyun's cool-headed organiser is the standout, and Lee Si Young, Lee Jin Wook and Kim Sang Ho give the building its spine; the stakes land because the show spends time on people before it puts them in danger. The weaknesses are just as clear. The opening is slow and crowded, which is where the drops cluster, and it only takes off once the building is sealed in episode 2. The creature effects range from striking to rubbery, and a few English rock songs cut across scenes that needed silence. The ensemble is too big to service, so several backstories are hinted at and never paid off, and the romance never gets past longing. The gore is real but brief: heavy nosebleeds, a few brutal injuries and fewer jump scares than the premise suggests. The biggest caution is what comes after. The two later seasons, in 2023 and 2024, leave the building for a survival story crowded with soldiers and new characters. They play as a different and much weaker show. Watch it for the cast, the sealed building and ten episodes that move. Treat season one as the whole thing, and go on only if you need the answers. Skip it if you want wall to wall action or monsters that look real.