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Avg. Rating: 3
Not One Of Korea's Better Horror Films!
"Nightmare," by director Byeong-ki Ahn, is neither a very good horror film, nor a very good slasher film. The film begins with a pretty good start: You witness the body of a young girl in a morgue who is having her eyes stitched shut. Fast forward into the future, and the films narrative begins with a a group of former college friends who are being killed off one by one. Is this the work of a mentally unstable woman? Or is it the vengeful spirit of one of the groups former friends who was accidentally killed years before? The film leaves you guessing as to whether or not this is the work of either a killer, or a ghost. Or maybe both?
As the films narrative moves along, you see a young woman, Sun-ae (Jeong-yun Choi) who has just returned from the United States, after a two year absence. Moreover, she is hiding out in one of the friends' apartment; and she believes the ghost of this vengeful spirit is out to take revenge and kill her. The viewer sees Kyungh-ah (Ji-won Ha) as the vengeful ghost who is on an unstoppable mission. Or is it? As the bodies begin to pile up, some of the friends are warned by detectives that one of the girls, Sun-ae (Jeong-yun Choi) has been in a mental hospital, and is either the killer, or maybe in danger herself. She has sought refuge in the apartment of one of her friends, who was also once part of her inner circle of friends: Hye-jin (Gyu-ri Kim).
These few survivors are what remain of the college friends who know of the terrible secret regarding Kyungh-ah [aka: Eun-ju]. Although this film was probably inspired by "Prom Night," that is not the problem. The major problem with this film is the scriptwriting and cohesion of the film itself. The film is very disjointed, and the back and forth flashbacks from past and present were a little irritating. And while the film was not really original, I could deal with that. However, the film was slow and boring. This film will probably appeal to those who like slasher films, whether or not it is foreign. This is not the worst Asian horror film I have seen, however, the film just isn't that good either.
Best Review for this Movie
I noticed that alot of people (who were American) gave the review to this movie a low star rating, which were mostly biased due to the types of horror films they are used to viewing. I myself am American, but I have viewed lots of foreign films and foreign horror films so I feel I am more open minded and have a greater appreciation for foreign films, especially because I feel that I am probably more cultured than the others on foreign horror. As far as a horror enthusiast who is used to American slasher films, they would most likely not enjoy this movie, but if you like horror in general without your own cultural biases, I feel that "Nightmare" was a pretty good film. It had all the makings of a good horror film,...suspense, drama, blood and guts and the flashbacks were easy to follow, as well as the story line. If people were "confused" about the story it was mostly because they are used to watching horror films that are styled to their culture. The only thing I did not like about this movie was that I wish it was a little more graphic with the killing scenes, which I feel is a personal preference. Other than that I felt it was a good film that had wonderful acting and dialogue.
Hey - At least it's Asian horror.
Nightmare could've been done a lot better, but then again, it could've been done a lot worse. You all should probably know a little about the storyline, so I'll just go into what I think they could've improved on:
1 - The first half of the movie was confusing and slow. Sure, they tie it all together at the end, but they could've made the retracing of what happened in the past more apparent. I was watching the movie in present-time and had no idea they were retracing the characters' previous actions. For a while, it felt like several random scenes were being pieced together which was apparently supposed to make sense.
2 - The make-up effects were laughable. The ghost looked like a goth chick and wasn't that scary at all.
3 - The movie assumes you know everything about the main characters. The characters go around and talk about specific things to each other more than half-way into the movie which should've been brought up/hinted on/foreshadowed earlier as to avoid confusion. The characters hold connections to each other that just felt tossed in just to make the relationships seem more dense.
Yeah... if they would've spent a little bit more time going over everything, they could've made the storyline easier to follow, thus making the movie more enjoyable. Oh, and they should also take a few notes from their Japanese horror counterparts because the ghost was seriously not scary. But don't be dismayed... everything comes together in the last 30 minutes of the film (making everything a bit more intense), and the ending was actually kind of cool, so the movie is at least worth being rented first.
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