Gawi

I'm afraid that I didn't like this movie very much. Apart from a few saving graces, it's nothing to write home about.

J-horror has boomed for the last five-six years but the films themselves have on more than one account been repetitive and carbon copies of a previous success. This is one of them.

Basically this is a supernatural slasher movie. The beginning is promising with chilling scenes from a morgue where a dead girl has her eyes graphically sewn together, but soon after opens them. However, after that, it's quickly downhill for this flick.

To be kind I will start with the things I like about "Gawi". On the plus side, the visuals are gaudy and the movie looks great for it's type. For those who like their horror movies gory there are a few nicely executed (no pun intended) murder scenes. We also get a few good suspense sequences/set-pieces.

However, there are quite a few drawbacks also...

First of all, and my major complaint about this movie, is that the plot skips and jumps forwards and backwards in time with an alarming intensity. Usually that's not a problem for me, but here, where the students look exactly the same no matter what age they are, I was confused on more than one occasion.

The performances are okay I guess (a little hard to tell when you don't know the language), but seem a little stiff. And for a horror movie, I don't think it was scary enough. For a while I was quite bored actually.

Being a fan of giallo movies, I was expecting quite a lot from "Nightmare", but unfortunately I was quite disappointed.

The story premise isn't new: three years after a group of college friends drive a girl with Sadako-like powers to kill herself, they all start dying violent deaths. What's unclear until the final act is whether the spirit of the deceased girl has come back to wreak her revenge, or whether one of the group has cracked up and is committing the murders themselves.

Fans of Korean cinema may remember lead actress Gyu-ri Kim as the Jessica Alba lookalike in "Whispering Corridors" (aka Yeogo Goedam) and she turns in another fantastic performance here. All of the cast members do, in fact - with Ji-won Ha as the Sadako-like girl mentioned above particularly impressive in the flashback scenes. Director/Writer Byeong-ki Ahn, who went on to direct "Phone" in 2002, shows a competent hand at direction with a few excellent set pieces and some genuinely spine-tingling suspense. If you manage to avoid jumping at least three times during this film, you're a braver soul than I!

NIGHTMARE's shortcomings come in the plot department, with a few plot holes and convoluted story strands making it hard to follow at times. You're also not sure whether it's a slasher pic or a ghost story - but that's intentional, I suppose! Watch out for the final twist at the very end - it completely turns the rest of the film on its head - which, although out of the blue, at least leaves the viewer in no doubt as to what's happened.

Had this been a little easier to follow throughout, NIGHTMARE would be getting my highest recommendation of 5 stars. As it is, though, fans of Asian horror shouldn't be disappointed and - although it's no RINGU or THE EYE - there's plenty to keep the average horror fan entertained. ***.5 / *****

'Nightmare' is only the second Korean horror movie I have seen. The first was the overrated 'The Eye', which many people seem to love (I don't). Personally I enjoyed this less known supernatural thriller a lot more. It owes a huge debt to classic American slasher movies of the past, but they themselves were inspired by Italian giallo, so it doesn't really matter who did what first, as long as it entertains. And this very effective thriller does that. I can see certain superficial similarities between 'Nightmare' and the much hyped Japanese horror film 'Ringu', but the approach is quite different, and I think this is the better of the two movies. The story concerns a group of school friends hiding a secret from the past, which comes back to haunt them. Standard horror fare true, but 'Nightmare' makes this familiar material worth watching just the same. And having a few very cute Korean girls among the cast certainly does it no harm! Worth a look, it's better than you'd think.

We see a body of dead girl in a morgue with the coroner trying to close the eyes of the girl, but whatever he tries they won't stay open. After this we move into the future and we follow a group of former school friends who hide a terrible secret, but suddenly they start getting picked off one by one in many grisly ways. Through flashbacks we learn of this awful suicide of a shy girl who was trying to be one of the group, but she was shut out by them because they dug up her past and found out some weird occurrences. So, is she back from the grave seeking revenge?

Oh what a great and always spooky story! Well, that's what I hoping I could say. And 'hoping' was as good as it got. This is an forgettable, so-so supernatural horror flick that I actually watched before, but I went in thinking it was my first viewing. So to my surprise it hit me when I started picking up on certain things, but like I said it's quite a forgettable mix that it felt like a first viewing again. "Nightmare' is just another type of it's field that adds a 'few' changes to the gruel. Oh, please give me something that's a bit more fresh. It doesn't have to be entirely original, but this is one formulaic and at times quite tired J-horror flick. Even though it strings along the usual ghost story involving you guessed right… an evil looking, vengeful chick spirit.

But in spite of my negativity of it being the same old, same old story and jolts. This one kind of entertains when its being grisly and popping in some creepy visuals. The deaths are vividly displayed with bite and some originality. While, the gloomy atmosphere alienates the audience with it's murky lighting. The first scene involving the spirit terrorising one of the girls is one blood-curdling experience, but really when it's not trying to shock you. I found it rather coma inducing and I thought about getting some shut-eye. That might be harsh, but it just didn't go anywhere of any interest between those shock moments. You could say that because the supposed mystery is really not much of one, the unsure story is just simply flat and the characters are a self-centred bunch that you don't really care what happens to them. The disjointed story should have focused more on the spirit than that of these bland characters who have one unconvincing group relationship. It just overplayed its cards by becoming overly muddled and taking too long to get going that when it comes to the climax it's just plain ludicrous. The film's haunting ending is a high point, though.

The film looks fine, although it could have done without the snazzy, quick fire editing and the music score was a bit overbearing in playing up the mood. The performances tread a fine line, but Gyu-ri Kim is strong in the lead role.

It's nothing new and it shamelessly steals ideas, but if you can look past that it delivers some nasty thrills. Although, I found the handling of it rather lethargic, despite the odd effective chills. A standard effort all round I guess, but still it's equally missable.

The reviews I read for this movie were pretty decent so I decided to check it out. BAD IDEA! This is another movie about a ghost out for revenge against a group friends. The story is stupid, mix two parts Ringu with one part Prom Night, a sprinkle of I Know what you did Last Summer, and add a tiny dash of Single White Female - now blend until completely nonsensical. There is nothing new to this plot, and revisiting the clichés I've grown so fond of wasn't even entertaining this time. This movie jumps to and from the past too much, and once I made sense of it all I realized it still didn't make much sense. Characters go from sane to psycho killer in the blink of an eye. Speaking of characters, they are all your stereotypical favorites - the greedy selfish lawyer, the egocentric actress, the has-been baseball star, the video voyeur, the bitter girl, the spooky quiet chick, the 'nicer-than-nice' nice girl, a freakin' black cat... and I didn't care about any of them. Perhaps a better writer could have made the movie work, there were some decent scenes in it, but overall this movie was a mess. I should also mention a certain 'video tape' that would have been IMPOSSIBLE to shoot.

This movie isn't the worst Asian horror has to offer by far, but it is still pretty bad. If you just want to see some creepy images in the dark, or just want to laugh out loud at some over the top acting, or just want to yell "you're stupid!" at a movie screen, or just want to have another Asian horror flick up your sleeve when someone asks you how many you've seen - this movie is for you.

Those seeking a decent plot look elsewhere.