Action and horror can occasionally produce a mixed bag, as any fans of Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil on Netflix, or Paul W.S. Anderson can confirm. Digs against Resident Evil’s low points aside, the genre fusion is a natural fit, perfect both for popcorn flicks and, potentially, groundbreaking fiction. Such is the case for one particular Netflix niche.
While many streaming services, particularly specialized ones like Shudder, offer tailor-made horror experiences for viewers, Netflix has tapped into one corner seemingly brimming with excellence in that arena: K-dramas. This includes Parasyte: The Grey, Kingdom, and Gyeongson Creature, but perhaps most notably, its adaptation of Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan’s Sweet Home.
Sweet Home Is What Netflix’s Resident Evil Wishes It Could Be
Based on one of the best completed manhwa out there, Sweet Home characteristically matches other K-dramas in how loosely they adapt their source material. However, at its core, it remains a dark battle for survival as humans are twisted into monsters matching that which they desire the most, with its hero, Cha Hyun-su, becoming a monster-human hybrid channeling these transformations.
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Sweet Home mixes body horror into the usual zombie apocalypse gimmick, all while the story, despite the source predating the worldwide pandemic, strikes a nerve among viewers. In its first season, Sweet Home’s monsterization outbreak forces Hyun-su and his neighbors to hide away in the Green Home apartment complex, venturing into the ravaged world in its second and third seasons.
Conceptually, Sweet Home’s body horror transformation for Hyun-su feel almost like a benevolent Resident Evil protagonist, afflicted with something resembling a Plagas Parasite. While the reality of this outbreak is stranger than one may expect, it’s also compelling enough to drive massive viewership and impressive Rotten Tomatoes scores across all three seasons.
Netflix’s Webtoon Adaptations Differ Meaningfully (But in a Good Way)
This series diverges fairly significantly from the original Sweet Home manhwa available on the Webtoon platform, a chance requested by Kim Carnby himself and clearly embraced by Netflix, Studio Dragon, and Studio N. Characters like firefighter Seo Yi-kyung didn’t exist in the webtoon, but arguably enhance the show in their additions, alongside backstory changes and more, without hurting the show.
K-dramas commonly do this in adapting manhwa for the screen. Bloodhounds would have been a much more limited/dour affair if it followed its manhwa more closely, while What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? proves faithful adaptations can still be excellent when executed well. With Sweet Home, it also benefited from a massive captive audience, releasing during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Sweet Home’s production values are solid, while its monster designs are appropriately grotesque and sure to win over zombie fans despite its more overt body horror concepts. And, if you’ve finished Sweet Home, it’s also not too late to check out other superb Netflix horror K-dramas like All of Us Are Dead, season 2 coming soon.
- Release Date
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2020 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
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Lee Eung-bok, Jang Young-woo, Park So-hyun
- Writers
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Hong So-ri, Kim Hyung-min, Park So-jung
- Franchise(s)
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Sweet Home
