Netflix series Sweet Home sends chills, but delivers deeper underlying message

If anything, horror is not the first genre that comes to mind when we hear the title “Sweet Home”. I initially thought it’ll be a soap drama.

That’s not the case. Netflix’s newest original series is anything but sweet.

It’s a thriller-horror series adapted from the eponymous webtoon which made a hit in South Korea, scoring over 500 million views.

Before its global release on 18 Dec (Fri), an exclusive press conference was held online on 16 Dec (Wed) with director Lee Eung-bok and the cast of the Netflix Original series.

The 10-episode series stars young blood like Song Kang, Lee Do-hyun, Go Min-si and Park Kyu-young alongside industry veterans Lee Jin-wook and Lee Si-young.

Characters reside in a rundown apartment “Green Home”, where a series of peculiar incidents unfolds and they’ve got to battle it out with monsters.

Other than the towering creatures, the series, too, has a meaningful message to impart to viewers. Director Lee Eung-bok aims to reflect human desires in the monsters, and these desires don’t necessarily have to be bad. “Some monsters don’t harm humans”, he adds.

The ultra-realistic monster depiction roped in assistance from Troy James, a contortionist nicknamed “The Human Spider”. The American-Got-Talent participant was responsible for capturing the motion of monsters appearing in the series.

That’s not all. Together with Troy were world-renowned visual effects (VFX) teams, such as Oscar-nominated Legacy Effects, Spectra Motion and Westworld, they formed the global dream team.

The actors were also indispensable to make the series come to live. Since the story is dark right from the first episode, the cast made efforts to adjust to their roles.

“I should live true to the most introverted, darkest side of me to portray Hyun-su”, says actor Song Kang who plays a high school student who lost his entire family in a terrible accident.

The same goes for veterans Lee Jin-wook and Lee Si-young.

“My character Pyeon Sang-wook does not remind you of Lee Jin-wook”, the 39-year-old actor reveals. “I prepared thoroughly to show a different side of me, and hope that viewers don’t notice it’s me”, he adds.

While Song Kang and Lee Jin-wook have been adapting mentally and emotionally, Lee Si-young, who plays a former special forces soldier and a firefighter, had to work on her physique.

“I worked out as hard as I could, and did martial arts training for the action sequences”, says Lee Si-young. Sweet Home also posed as a larger challenge, as compared to her previous works.

For those interested to find out how these characters residing in Green Home can fight the monsters, find your answers on Netflix.

Sweet Home will see its global premiere on Netflix tomorrow, 18 Dec.