REVIEW: SWEET HOME

By Rubén Íñiguez Pérez

SWEET HOME is set in one of Spanish saddest realities: evictions. A drama that affects thousands of families in this country. However, inside this background we aren’t dealing with a film that wants us to reflect on this but one looking for entertainment. Rafa Martínez makes his debut with a claustrophobic slasher in which he introduces to us: El liquidador – the liquidator- who will become a cult figure in Spanish Horror. The son-of-a-bitch psychokiller all fans wanted to have in Spanish cinema.

The movie smells of cult from video stores. Undoubtedly,   its creators know perfectly well about this kind of cinema from which they take, in the perfect way, some elements: 80s atmosphere and music, heartless killer, suspense, black humour moments, gore and a blonde in danger. Something fans of VHS will appreciate. SWEET HOME  wise moves are its rhythm and structure. A thriller with good moments of suspense that turns into a brutal slasher that has nothing to envy from Alexandre Aja’s first works talking about cruelty.  The director dares to approach a genre of no long tradition in Spain. Rafa Martínez’s mastery behind the camera,  gets right while dealing with each scene rhythm. Bruno Sevilla and  Ingrid García-Jonsson’s work must also be highlighted.

SWEET HOME is the kind of movie horror fan wants to find at the movie theatres: an entertaining story which forgets about being pretentious but that is well done, a bastard giving the good ones a hard time, scares and blood. Basically it wants the spectator to have fun for a while since the very beginning when the room lights are turned off. If you want that, this is your movie.

P. S. I need the soundtrack disc!

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Rubén Íñiguez Pérez is a Spanish literature scholar. He has written different articles about horror cinema for several media and he is part of the headquarters of La Mano Film Festival.