Five years after the Japanese horror sensation "Ringu" caught the attention of global audiences, South Korean filmmaker Jee-woon Kim created something equally as horrible (in the best sense of the word), but a story a bit more grounded in reality making it all the more frightening. Its premise isn't exactly novel, but this is certainly a piece to chill you to your core.
A family is torn apart following the death of a mother. Two sisters, their father and their new stepmother return to their beautiful, secluded house where they try to cope with a new life and deal with their grief. But demons, new and old, plague the family and the two girls, Soo-mi and Soo-yeon must contend not only with their domineering, abusive stepmother, they must also face spirits haunting their rooms.
Kim has taken the tradition of the classic, Asian ghost story of specter girl in white and brought it to a level to contend with "Ringu". This is an intensely creepy film not simply because of the ghosts that torment the two loving sisters, but also because this is a story of the imbalances of the mind. Soo-mi and Soo-yeon, the eldest and the protector, spent time recovering from the shock of their mother's death in a mental institution. Their imbalances, however, seem paltry when compared to stepmother Eun-joo.
When the horrid reality of the night becomes indistinguishable from the maniacal goings on of the day, the film becomes one continuous nightmare. Reality begins to blur and this psychotic newcomer becomes as awful--if not more--as the contorted woman wrenching herself from the inside of closets and under sinks.
This movie has a complete grasp of the rules of horror film making. It is never about the moments when the slasher or the ghoul jumps out and grabs you, it is all about the moment just before. Here, every moment intended to be psychotic is explosively believable, and every moment of ghostly horror is almost stiflingly tense. I can say that I was genuinely frightened by this film and there were moments when I was afraid to watch. Eli Roth, director of "Hostel", has said that the biggest compliment a horror film director can receive is when an audience member says they couldn't watch the movie. I don't necessarily believe that that applies to him, as he has capitalized on the cinema of torture which is not at all the same kind of film, but the essence of what he says is true, and is certainly the case here.
Su-jeong Lim as See-mi gives an incredibly promising first performance in what I imagine would have been a very exhausting role to play. A mentally unstable teen who is torn between fear, resentment, guilt and pride is no small feat.
The film ends in a confusing way and with content that will shed more light on the story while adding to the depth of her performance, though I am not sure it would pass a second viewing without gigantic plot holes emerging. I figured out its twists early on, but it didn't detract in the slightest from what I was watching. This is a very scary film, but an unusually smart addition to the genre as well.
3/4
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