Nightmare (2000)

"Nightmare" is a much better than expected supernatural slasher with many good points.**SPOILERS**Returning home to Korea, Sun-ae, (Choi Jeong-yun) catches up with sister Hye-jin, (Kim Gyu-RI) about their old friends Jung-wook, (Yu Jun-Sang) Se-Hon, (Jun Jeong) Hyun-joon, (Yu Ji-tae) and Mi-ryeong, (Jo Hye-yeong) who she hasn't seen in awhile. Learning that she fears their deceased friend Kyung-ah, (Ha Ji-won) and thinks she has been following her, they all reveal similar stories about their experiences around her, and upon thinking back, not even a friendship with Eun-Jun, (Ha Ji-won) made them stop thinking that way. When it finally gets revealed that her ghost has been behind the series of strange events that have plagued them for the time-being and has taken to killing them off one-at-a-time, forcing them to find a way to stop the ghost's deadly rampage.The Good News: There was a lot of good stuff to this one. One of the best features is the fact that the film gets much more violent than would be expected through some great kills that are more brutal than expected. There's a pencil stabbed into a head, a head rammed through a series of windows that eventually start to get embedded in the skull, a particularly brutal slit throat, being repeatedly struck in the face with a baseball bat, an impaling with a multi-pronged metal pole through the stomach and more, which is quite nice to see that it doesn't shy away from the usual blood-and-gore trappings of the genre. We also get more carnage here from the film's two back-story segments, both of which are incredible in their own right but also serve to add more gore. The first, which shows the brief-albeit-impressive exorcism of the natives comes complete with the tribal drumming and ceremonial rituals that make it exciting, and that it ends with a bang due to the crash-site showing the wounded and dismembered victims with the sole survivor, horribly bleeding themselves, walking out of the wreckage with an impressive visual, while the second-one, shot through a video-camera, manages to clarify all the questions up until then, winds it together with a great fight and an effective wrap-up that feels realistic and logical about the situation and manages to feel really good as well, making it a good winner. It even has a couple really nice action scenes as well, the most important being the incredibly fun rooftop brawl in the rain at the end, which is a lot of fun and has a lot of great moments throughout, who's-in-control changes constantly and it feels really well-done and effectively ends it with the proper result. The ghost, as usual, looks really good and has a lot going for it during it's moments, getting some really creepy moments out of the usual scenes and holding some key scenes together rather nicely. The last plus here is the film's best part, it's high quantity of ghost encounters present. There's a ton of them in here, nearly all of which are enjoyable or at the very least somewhat creepy. From the ghost floating at the bottom of the swimming pool with their hair drifting in the current to the hand rising from out of the video camera and the several chases through the school's hallway, the encounters here were really well-done and effectively made for a nice atmosphere. Even the two fantastic house scenes, where it appears during a raging thunderstorm and uses the shadows to sneak up on it's victim, or too where it only shows itself to one of them while others are there and don't see it coming after them, it's full of impressive scenes that work really well here. These are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of problems with this one. One of the main flaws is the film's really bad scares-to-kills ration. The ghost is given a lot of screen-time in this, providing a lot of opportunities for some kills, but the fact there isn't as much compared to the scares is a little distressing. Granted, being around a lot shows off the power and fear requirements quite nicely, but it still would've been nice to be able to have the areas a little more even in terms of actually being on-screen to kill rather than to scare, great as those scenes are. The only other main area of problem here is the film's rather curious decision to use the first-half of the film as a flashback sequence that explains the whole relationship with everyone. This isn't all that well-exposed, coming across as something that could've been told effectively in a more subdued way that manages to get the same points across without taking as long to spell everything out as it does. That's the main problem with it, being that, since it decides to focus on the relationship quirks of the friends while telling a flashback, a point not revealed until the end of the sequence, before going into either scenes that the individual telling wouldn't have known about or into another flashback within, it just feels as though the entire set-up could've come off a little differently than what is shown, while still telling the same story and hitting the same points. These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: With a lot of good stuff and only a few minor flaws to it, there wasn't much really holding this one back in the genre. Give this one a shot if you're into the ghostly revenge genre or a huge of fan of Asian horror, while those who aren't really into these films should heed caution.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity

The vengeful spirit of Kyung-ah(Ji-won Ha), a young woman who supposedly leaped from the balcony of a building to her death on top of a car's roof below, murders a group of friends, it seems, for no reason. Hye-jin(Gyu-ri Kim)was an unfortunate eye-witness to Kyung-ah's death from the street and finds that one of her friends, Seon-ae(Jeong-yun Choi)has returned from her stay in America. It's been two years since Kyung-ah's demise and Hye-jin is still burdened by troubling nightmares regarding her friend. Seon-ae claims that Kyung-ah follows her everywhere, tormenting her. Soon, a new friend enters Hye-jin's life, a mysterious young woman named Eun-ju..but is this new relationship real or imagined because Eun-ju eerily resembles Kyung-ah. As her friends are found dead by grisly means, Hye-jin must question whether or not Seon-ae is the culprit or perhaps Kyung-ah herself. A major sub-plot concerns a hot-shot lawyer and his lover, both part of the group being slaughtered one at a time. What Hye-jin doesn't know is that her friends hide a horrifying secret which might explain the gruesome events transpiring.Despite being visually arresting(I thought the camera-work was dazzling and the use of light effective), this film still utilizes the basic "ghostly revenge" supernatural slasher sub-plot. And, the ghostly haunts resemble the Asian horror hits populating the marketplace at the time, such as RINGU & JU-ON:THE GRUDGE. Still, there are enough unpleasant images and some nasty violence to keep one off-guard. There's an overhead shot of a victim lying in her bathtub bleeding as the shower rains upon her and one graphic attack on one male victim in a phone booth after his eye is gouged out. I thought "Nightmare" felt very reminiscent to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER regarding how a secret kept within a small group leads to their being murdered. Slasher fans might just enjoy this one, but I don't think director Byeong-ki Ahn's film stands out from the pack of Asian horror flicks streaming today. Though, saying that, I do believe his visual eye is beneficial to the horror genre, as is cinematographer Seok-hyeon Lee..they craft a good looking product here, even if the material feels rather deja vu.

Asian cinema has been on a roll in recent years, rewriting the rules of the horror genre in particular. "Gawi" though seems to turn the clock back and returns favours to the American teen horror market. The film centres round a group of friends reminiscing at first about the suicide of an old acquaintance, and then when each begins to be picked off grizzly one at a time, they start to fear what they can't see blaming it on her revengeful return.The film basically combines together influences from Scream, "I know what you did last summer" and adds the now obligatory "loner female with long black hair and a troublesome background" from the Asian markets (someone please now give this a rest!). The shocks are never really scary and the acting can be quite lame.Confusing at first, you will get the hang of it, and the last 20 mins are quite interesting as the film gently twists. Regardless it is not a good film, and very unoriginal. Not by any means the worst, but simply a poor straight-to-video effort in my opinion.

Buying this movie was a blind buy...I knew a little about the flick but something about the film had me interested in it so I bought. I hoped it would be as good as the other Asian horror flicks I have been watching lately and boy...was this film great. I really liked this film a lot, I loved the way it was directed, I loved the original take on a played out concept and I loved the acting. Great acting all around except for some ham acting from a certain actor towards the end. Only a true talented director with a vision can take elements from a genre that your all too familiar with and totally blows your head with it. Korean director Byeong-Ki Ahn really came through with talent and true insight in a genre that's so easily ripped off...he shows new takes on slasher moments and gives the film a real edge that most post scream movies don't have. Now let's start off with the most important...the script. I really liked the script for this film. It was smart,original in it's take of the movie's plot and pretty great story telling. Right from the get go this film had me watching and I was never bored. I love how the film started one way then slowly started changing on me without me even noticing it. I loved how since this film is about that "J-horror" genre(but it's actually K-Horror because it's Korean) but slowly it becomes more complex and moves away from the J-horror movies we have all come to know. Smart lad this Byeong-Ki Ahn is...much talented. I loved the characters in this film. They were all wonderfully played by actors who looked young and had the chops to pull it off. And the girls,wow...I have never seen so many hot looking girls in one film. I mean,they were hot...I couldn't take my eyes off of them and they also knew how to act. Simply wonderful. I liked how this movie short of had that Scream type of vibe with the whole teen thing but I also liked how they didn't try to rip it off either. This movie is smarter than Scream I think, Scream was a fan boys fantasy...this film is just that...a film. They took something that everyone here in the states has ripped off to the point of death(Scream mainly) and did something smart by mixing it into the booming J-horror genre and making something totally cool and clever. I also liked how there were no "evil" people just misguided and human characters. The characters never did anything to make me go"oh I know why they did that...it was just so that the character to serve the story" In this movie it's the other way around...the characters are the story and the movie was about them and something they had done. No this isn't like the ripped off crap that was "I know what you did last summer"(which was ripped off from the flawed 80's flick "Prom Night". No, I know what you did last summer and Prom Night wish they could be as good as Nightmare. From the beginning we're never told what the characters did(something that Prom Night really messed up on by telling us too early and then trying to us care about those same characters who did something really bad) No, this movie allows us to know these people as characters and then they tell us what happened.Great show. Now for some of the beefs. The third act was kicking, I mean I loved it. Most other J-horror movies would have done the third act in the same way but this film doesn't and I loved them for that. But my only beef with that is the acting from the "bad guy" I mean come on...the dude spend most of the movie being calm and level headed and then at the end he goes all loco. Wow, how the hell that happen? Another beef is with the last pace of the film. First off let me say I loved fast pace, it really helped me get interested in this film and never allowed me to get bored. But at moments it seemed like it went a little to fast paced to the point where I didn't know what I was watching. I was left going"what? How that happen?" At times I found myself lost. But it's all good...the film had a few beefs but it still rocked hard. Now back to my favorite thing about the film...the directing. Man, Byeong-Ki Ahn kicked all kinds of tail with this bad boy. Man, I was really impressed with all the style and talent he showed without being all "look at me I'm so talented because I'm using all this style" No, homeboy handled his stuff good. He rocked the acting, he handled the drama, the unfolding story and the horror. Man,boy knows his stuff and brought so much to this cool flick. Great show.