Whispering Corridors: The Humming

This is my first movie in this series and I think I'll look for the others! A fairly well made movie about a high school for girls where there are rumours of haunting and a scary happening in the past, all fueld by a closed of floor that has been unused for years. You get plenty exploring in the dark, whispering empty corridors when the school is closed and a well made drama between the protagonist - a former student returned, maybe with knowledge of said happenings... And the pupils and serious real world issues of abuse and neglect. Throw into this the creepyest rotten pupil slowly appearing from the abandoned floor and you get a pretty decent film. Intrigued?

After more than a decade of silence, the Whispering Corridors series makes its grand comeback with the brand new movie. And as usual, it's yet another standalone story.

Following the old tradition, this movie is set in an all-girls school, but refreshingly this time our central protagonist is not a schoolgirl, but an adult woman named No Eun-Hee. Arriving to her hometown, Gwangju, she starts working at a local school that she herself was a student of. Soon after arrival she gets dragged into a whole whirlpool of issues - problem students, odd rumors, vengeful ghosts and her own forgotten past all come with their hardships and challenges.

Despite the supernatural premise this movie is more of a drama disguised as a ghost story. Of course, it has its share of creepy moments, jumpscares and eerie visuals, but they are not central elements of the movie. If you were a fan of the series, you'll know what to expect and if you weren't, I'm making this clear here. It promises to be a horror movie, but it isn't.

With that out of the way, the general storyline of this movie is pretty solid. Not quite novel in many aspects, but enjoyable as a whole package. It combines two layers - past and present - in a rather unique way. Both have their own ghosts, antagonists and societal issues to shine a light on. Most of the time they're only connected by the experiences of Eun-Hee. Telling essentially two different stories in a single movie is a dangerous road to take, but the authors managed to do it gracefully. Certain moments can be very unexpected and shocking, thought provoking and terrifying even. It won't leave your head very easily.

It's not completely flawless though. There are a few odd and awkward scenes here and there. These don't make much sense even on a rewatch and feel like cheap baiting or red herring. It could be much better without those.

Musically it also doesn't have a strong identity, which is especially disheartening when comparing to previous movies. Most of the tracks are just your generic Korean horror stuff. At least there is a pretty nice and bittersweet ending theme song.

Going back to the positives, visually it's very pleasing. It carries good location choices and camera work and overall feels very artistic.

All in all, this is a great watch - both as a standalone experience and as the worthy successor of the long running series. It has a great story, despite a few issues, and looks pretty amazing. It manages to be surprising even in the eyes of old fans, but is also a welcoming introduction to any newcomers.

On a side note, non-Korean viewers might feel a bit confused about certain historical context. I strongly advice to read up on any confusing plot points on the Internet. And don't worry - once you finish this movie, you'll know exactly what to look for.

Returning to her old high school, the new vice-principal of an all-girls school discovers a series of incidents involving the student body there have direct ties to her own past including the rumored ghost said to be haunting the school and must help them unearth the cause of the situation before it's too late.

Overall, there's a lot to like with this one. Where it works best is in the setup involving the systemic abuse that takes place at the school. Rather than go overboard detailing the ghostly activities present to build up a sense of tension, instead, the focus is more on the treatment of the students. Major plotlines involving the need for acceptance, acting out with false claims of neglect and sexual harassment as well as abuse stemming from the rejection of unwanted attraction between a student and teacher manage to drive a lot of the running time. Even more so, when these allegations are proven true they're often met with skepticism and the need to turn a blind eye to the infraction out of fear that the incident with scar their reputation. When all of these factors are applied alongside the usual standard and drive from the teachers to get the best grades and citizenship out of their students, there's some chilling work here at times. Likewise, this one also has a lot to like with the slow advent of supernatural hauntings throughout here. With the main setup focused on the past haunting in the school following the vice-principal for what happened to them as kids, there are some genuinely creepy moments here. This flashback is quite creepy with the incident starting the hauntings in the rest of the film as well as getting the first few incidents involving the ghost stalking students as being quite creepy. These include the library encounter as well as the creepy chase through the storage room where the first clear sighting of the bone-chilling design of the ghost makes for a spine-chilling sight. Taking great advantage of the atmosphere involving the school and some fine jump-scares with the spirit coming for people when least expected, these elements all manage to provide a lot of enjoyable elements here. All that said, there are some issues with this that keep it down somewhat. This mostly comes along from the more pronounced focus away from the ghost for long periods of time to feature all the extracurricular activities on and off-campus. The emergence of the incident where one of the teachers filmed himself sexually abusing and then blackmailing several students with threats about who leaked what and who would be responsible creates the majority of the tension within. The resulting scandal and everyone reacts to it, from the students using it as leverage to exert their social status over everyone else, the faculty trying to keep it quiet for risk of damaging their reputation, and the guilty party resorting to whatever means possible to keep it a secret combine into an engaging time overall. However, none of these factors are enough to overcome the fact that the ghost isn't that prominent in the film. It shows up on only a few occasions and isn't a very big part of the film overall. Despite the scenes being creepy and chilling when they occur, far too much of this is spent sorting out the troubling accusations and scandals surrounding the student body. They seem to be well aware of the being and are openly searching for it at several points but it never goes anywhere and is dropped for long parts of the film's running time especially once a secondary reveal occurs in the final minutes involving a series of incidents in the past completely unrelated to the main storyline is revealed. The truth about what happened to the girls in the school and how the particular room in the school came to be haunted involves a secondary plotline that comes out of nowhere and ties into the teachers' trauma rather than explaining what's going on. Some might not be that turned off by these scenes since they're still fun and well-filmed, but for those wanting ghostly action it does come up short.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and themes of sexual abuse.

Alright, another Whispering Corridors movie! My expectations: a ghost story set in a highschool with a decent atmosphere. I wasn't expecting for this to be an award winning effort. I was just in the mood for a ghost story. I enjoyed the previous entries in this series as good entertainment and sometimes with surprisingly great music and atmosphere.

This movie though was nothing like that.

The cinematography is great. Everything feels like a big budget project. The acting is also great, especially the protagonist. She did a great job with what she was handed.

And she wasn't handed a good script. The plot is all over the place. The director was too hasty baiting the audience before giving them something to stand on. He was already throwing build up scenes at us without establishing a rapport with the viewer. Why should I care about what's going to happen when I, as a viewer, don't know who these people are?

It is all a shame because later on he does that with his protagonist but it was at the end of the movie where nothing was at stake anymore.

The other characters are so underdeveloped that I keep confusing them with each other.

The new Bollywood, Korean crap. All the same. I will never ever watch another Korean movie.