Downstairs, the neighbours shut the front entrance after a narrow scrape and band together to survive. Meanwhile, Hyun-su develops his own nosebleed upstairs.

Falling somewhere between The Walking Dead , The Raid and Attack the Block, with a few Korean dramatics and some demented monster design to spice the pot, Sweet Home is yet another bold new step for Korean drama. You will not find much romance here, but beyond a breathless opening episode and all the grisly fun the show has to offer, you also will not find much of a story to latch onto.

Characters venture away from the blockaded first floor for supply runs and minor missions, but beyond that they don’t have much of a goal; this makes for a murky narrative, especially given its situation within the cramped confines of the building.

After meandering around for much of its midsection, the series suddenly kicks into gear with a terrific and outrageous set piece that closes episode eight. This sequence is the absolute highlight of the show, as many of the floating parts up until that point – including a recurring theme that had largely been incongruous – come together in a cathartic, satisfying and orgiastic medley of blood, guts and melodrama.

By the next episode, the characters all have something concrete to do – although largely at the expense of monster hunting – but there is far too much waiting around to get to that point.

As a high-concept horror show, Sweet Home goes for broke, with much of its budget clearly splashed on creature design, which includes a gigantic eye with legs, a blind monster with half its head lopped off, and a pulsating monster fetus.

The show has several horror influences, and references that include a character living in Apt 1408 (the name of a film based on a Stephen King short story), a barbed wire-wrapped baseball modelled after Lucille’s in The Walking Dead, the Zombieland -like rules of survival that pop up in episode six, and a strong, athlete-like monster reminiscent of that in I Am a Hero .

Not unlike the more melodramatic series that South Korea is known for, Sweet Home cranks everything up to 11. The characters are largely (fun) caricatures and even the air inside building isn’t content with just being air, as it’s generally filled with floating detritus, whether that is blood, smoke, ash or snow.

This everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach extends to the soundtrack, which blares out ill-fitting anthems at inopportune moments when it’s not aping Hans Zimmer themes from Interstellar.

Criticisms aside, there is a lot of fun to be had from the series, including the moment when the ever genial Kim Sang-ho (known for his role as the Crown Prince’s trusty bodyguard in Kingdom ) shows up on a window ledge with his custom crutch gun while swigging from a bottle simply labelled “ice cold”.

The one thing that the show consistently does well is showcase its monsters, because in the end, what’s home sweet home without a few monsters under the bed?

Sweet Home is streaming on Netflix.