Sweet Home is a horror series with 10 episodes that is currently streaming on Netflix. The series revolves around the lives of people living in an apartment, where a sudden peril strikes as people start transforming into monsters. The protagonist, Hyun-su, has certain tragedies in his life that have forced him to leave his home and come and stay in the apartment. The way he deals with his situation and protects himself from transforming into a monster, setting him apart from the other characters, has been highlighted in the series. The South Korean series Sweet Home was directed by Lee Eung-bok, starring actors like Song Kang, Goo Yoon Jung, Lee Do-hyun, and others. The series is sure to make its way to the top of the gore/slasher and horror entries list on Netflix. Will Hyun-su be able to save the people in the apartment from the monsters? Let’s find out!
Spoilers Ahead
What Situation Befalls The People In Gangnam?
A striking situation raises alarm in Gangnam when people suddenly start mutating into monsters for an unknown reason. People experience sudden nosebleeds, after which they transform into various kinds of monsters of different shapes, attacking humans and taking their lives. The monsters are deathless, and no matter how many times they are attacked, they manage to heal their wounds and resurrect. The mysterious infection is perplexing everyone in the town, and many people are of the opinion that the mutation is due to harmful radiation. There is a state of emergency that has been declared in the state since the death of the president. There is also a declaration about the ‘golden hour,’ the time before the mutation of a human into a monster, when they could be burned to death. The series brings out the fact that humans are responsible for creating such a dystopian situation for themselves.
How Did The People Look Out For Each Other?
While there is a catastrophic situation in the city and people are not safe out of their homes, some people are seen locking themselves up in an apartment. While still trying to figure out the symptoms, they were initially suspicious of each other. The way their suspicion turned into care for each other makes up a significant chunk of the series. The people in the apartment are seen to suspect Sang Wook, a mafia guy who has been bitten by a monster while trying to fight it. The people in the apartment decided to tie him up, thinking that the infection might have spread to his body. Hyun-su is attacked by a one-eyed monster during his quest to save the kids staying in another apartment and is saved by a next-door neighbor, Du-sik. He brings the children to his own apartment to ensure that they are safe and provides Hyun-su with a powerful weapon to fight the monsters. Myeong-suk, a woman who had known the pains of losing her own child, takes charge of the two rescued children staying at Du-sik’s apartment. Even during such a state of emergency, people bonded with each other for protection, bringing out the compassion that is hidden within human beings.
Eun-hyeok had taken charge of the entire building and ensured that everyone was safe. To save the people from the hideous creatures roaming outside the apartment in search of humans, he kept people from going out or anyone from coming in. Jae-heon and Ji-su form a group to ensure that no perils befall the people in the building, taking up the charge of killing the monsters. Eun-hyeok noticed that Hyun-su had surpassed the time for transforming into a hideous monster and was still in his senses. He decided to put him to work so that he could save the others in the building. Sang Wook is revealed to be a good person at heart when he tries to save the people in the building from the monsters, along with Hyun-su. Even under such severe conditions, the people have not lost their sense of humanity. Myeong-suk was dedicatedly to taking care of the rescued children, even when she knew that she was slowly mutating.
Despite his declining health and serious medical condition, Mr. An doesn’t shy away from getting on the battlefield and contributing to the fight against the monsters. Du-sik, being a handicapped man, does not give up his hopes and fights till his last breath to calm Hyun-su when he is on the verge of turning into a monster. Yu-ri, a young girl with asthma, does her best to provide for and care for everyone in the building until she takes her last breath. The situation that had arisen had caused the children in the building to mature before time, as we see Su Yeong asking for a weapon so that she could save her brother from the monsters. Hurdles popped up one after another in the apartment while they were all struggling. Someone had to go out to get food and water supplies as the resources were limited. Sang Wook and Hyun-su had taken up the responsibility themselves to get it done. The unity of the people is also seen when an emergency situation requiring Ji-su’s appendix operation arises. They manage to get hold of the basic equipment, and with his little medical knowledge, Eun-Hyeok conducts the operation to save her life. The people who were having symptoms started quarantining themselves so that they would not become a threat to others. Jae Heon, another responsible resident of the apartment, gives up his own life in an attempt to protect the rest from a monster. There are several sacrifices that we witness in Sweet Home, bringing to light the sense of responsibility and compassion that we as humans should feel for each other.
What Was Sang Wook’s Motive?
Sang Wook initially seems to be a dangerous mafia member who is later revealed to be a protector. He is initially seen to torture a man, tying him up and beating him. The person tries escaping from his clutches and turning the others in the apartment against Sang Wook. Later, as he murders the man while chasing him down, we are taken down Sang Wook’s memory lane. A man looking for his kidnapped daughter had approached him. He had given his last savings to Sang Wook so that he could reunite with his child. When Sang Wook found out that this man was a pedophile who had murdered the little child, he tortured and murdered him. Later, he is also seen burning the money that he had received from the child’s father as he was unable to rescue her, which shows that he was not just interested in the money but also had some morals of his own. The people in the apartment are initially scared of his appearance and activities and think that he is a murderer and could harm anyone. However, later, they are all proved wrong when he risks his own life to go the extra mile and keep them safe from the monsters.
What Tragedies Did Hyun-Su Have To Deal With?
Hyun-su had to undergo a lot of traumas before he arrived at the apartment. When traveling down his memory lane, we get to see him being bullied by a guy named Do Hun at school. He could not raise his voice as his father was an employee of Do Hun’s father’s company. Even after getting severely beaten up by the bullies, he did not receive the support and help that he was expecting from his family. Finally, when Hyun-su spoke up against Do Hun and tried pushing him in front of a car, his father was fired from his job the very next day. While he was traveling in a car with his family, an altercation started between the father-son duo, causing his father to lose control of the car and meet with an accident. Unfortunately, only Hyun-su survived the accident, leaving him all alone in the world. The traumas that he was facing had made him suicidal. However, after the mayhem started, Hyun-su earned a new family in the apartment and wanted to save them at any cost because they were all he had.
Were The Monsters A Manifestation Of People’s Inner Demons?
The demons that the people were turning into were manifestations of their inner demons. Hyun-su had been able to fight his inner demon, preventing him from losing himself. Unlike him, the others, who were unable to control their inner fears, were turning into monsters. Myeong-suk, who had lost her baby in a road accident, was unable to fight her demons and ended up becoming a demon, looking like a fetus, as she was unable to give up the desire to meet her baby someday. When a gang of people invades the apartment, torturing people, the leader, Jung Seop, tells them that the greatest monsters are humans themselves. He tells them that he had gone to a church where people were confined together for days so that they could escape the monsters outside. He said that there were no signs of any monsters, but they had all ended up killing one another inside the church. While a majority of the monsters are portrayed as evil, some monsters also have a good side, as they are shown to help people. The words of Jung Seop about humans being the greatest monsters are proved right when one of the gang members tries raping both Yu-ri and Ji-su, and they end up killing him. When Ji-su regrets it, she is told by Sang Wook that the man she killed was not a human. The gang ends by being killed by the members of the apartment.
What Role Did The Firefighter Play?
Yi-kyung, the firefighter, had given it her all to keep the people safe in the building. She, however, had a hidden motive and was keen on finding out the whereabouts of her dead fiance, Sang Won, who was a scientist. When she digs deep into the matter, she finds his personal entry stating that he was slowly transforming into a monster. As she is almost about to dig out the truth, she is arrested by the military force and captured. She is questioned about the person who stopped himself from transforming into a monster (Hyun-su). She is told that she would get more information on her dead fiance if she were to give more information on the case. She was a secret agent who was living inside the apartment, seeking to find information on Hyun-su and his symptoms so that she could provide the information to the military forces.
What Did The Military Seek?
The special infected people who had not transformed into monsters despite being infected were searched by the military forces. It is possible that they were to capture the infected and conduct several experiments on them. Ui-myeong, who had entered the apartment as a gang member, later saves Hyun-su when he is captured by the gang. He tells Hyun-su that he was just a special-infected person like him who did not turn into a monster. He hands him a brochure and tells him that it was a leaflet that the militants had been dropping. It mentioned that anyone who would hand them over would be safeguarded by the government. He told Hyun-su that the people of the apartment would now use him as a ladder to save themselves and hand them over to the militants. Despite his doubts, he kills Ui-myeong when he tries to harm the people in the apartment and stops them from going out of the building.
Later, when the military approached them, seeking the infected people, Hyun-su surrendered himself. The other people are, however, struggling to find another outlet through which they can escape. When they finally manage to come out through an opening at the back of the building, they see themselves surrounded by soldiers. While they are escorted away by the soldiers, they see Yi-kyung going another way in search of her fiance. She is revealed to be a secret agent to the others as she goes on her own path while they are being taken away by the military.
The closing scene reveals that Hyun-su is being escorted by Sang Wook to another van, and he notices all the scars on Sang Wook’s face have disappeared. It is possible that Ui-Myeong, the sludge monster, took charge of Sang Wook’s body and used it to serve his ulterior motives. We are not sure, but Sang Wook might have died when he took Yu-ri out of the building to get medication for her asthma. It is also probable that Sang Wook was alive, and the monster had just taken his form to deceive Hyun-su. Whatever the case might be, we will find answers to these burning questions in the second season. Especially the answer to what Ui-Myeong really wants from Hyun-su.
Final Words
The first season of Sweet Home leaves out a lot of possibilities for the story in the second season. What caused the sudden outbreak of infection? How can the monsters be defeated? Will Hyun-su ever transform into a complete monster? What happens to the other people in the building? It is possible that some chemical leak was responsible for the sudden mutation in humans. There are a lot of gore elements that have been presented in the season, which makes it similar to other horror genre films like Train to Busan, and Gangnam Zombie. The answers to the other questions in the first season of Sweet Home are most likely to be answered in the next season of the series.
