Gosa

If you're looking just for entertainment than it's great, fast phased, filled with action and a little gore. Other than that the acting is not outstanding but not awful either, the special effects are okay. However the story is nothing special it's kind of a revenge story with saw-ish elements. I gave it 6 stars because I did enjoy watching but it's not something that'll stick with me or have any impact whatsoever.

Seeing how this movie did so well in Korean box office, I thought it would be pretty good. It's not really a horror flick, but sort of works like the "Saw" movies except not the victims but the students that still hasn't been kidnapped yet has to solve the puzzles in order to save there classmate. My guess is that there wasn't many Korean horror movies released during that year, and since Asians tends to crave horror flicks it did so well. Although the premise is pretty well done, none of the characters seem to stand out much and you just don't care who lives and who dies. None of them were believable and the character decisions don't make sense sometimes, there just isn't any logic. Plus everything about this movie seems to be rushed, especially the ending, the twist also wasn't that shocking or original. But what annoyed me the most was the cliché, it's safe to be in one area but a person can take it anymore or goes off to investigate when the person they leave behind is the one that really needs help, which tends to get annoying since it gets used way too much in this. Although I ain't really looking forward to the sequel to this, I hope it's better than this although sequels tend to suck.

5.3/10

Fast paced Korean high school spin on Saw. Students are kidnapped, set up in traps, and their classmates must answer questions to set them free. Simple set-up that requires a lot of generous suspension of disbelief by the audience. The killer becomes almost omniscient, and their technical skills are flawless. Still, if people didn't follow the rules we wouldn't have a film. The traps are pretty unsettling, and the story behind why this is going on manages to intrigue for the short running time. Also a critique on the competitive nature of education in South Korea, we see the students scores represented like sports scores. It knows when to build the suspense and when to relish in its gore, but the victims are simply that, and the twist is just too convenient.

This is supposed to be a horror movie but it's not really scary. It has some suspense however which can make it worth watching and it's more like a gory slasher similar to "Scream" than a ghost story. Having said that I'm not excluding any ghostly presence in the movie. It's simply up to you to find out. The actors are good, at least the main characters but the rest is just average.

The big disappointment comes later in the movie when the director is trying to tie everything together. The script just fails to make a trustworthy impression and you are suddenly very aware that you are only watching a movie when the characters starts behaving in weird ways and doesn't act at all how you would expect them to in their current situation.

Unexpected events are good in horror movies but not in this case, where it's only confusing but like I said in the beginning, the suspense is there so it's not really a bad movie.

I gave this film seven stars for the above average special effect they are using for an Asian movie. Normally, Asian movie are on pretty tight budget, I believe this movie received more investment than some others. The main actress is a singer turned actor, this is usually a disastrous move for western entertainment world but it does happen very often in Asian and she actually did a good job. Asian horror movies very frequently use young, innocent girl as main actress and she is perfect for that role. I must say, it works better than Western sexual appealing actresses. Most white girls are pretty tall and strong but with good body; I really think sometimes if they serious want to fight back, the bullies will get pounded.

Anyway, those young school girls and boys were as helpless as always but the only thing will work in this movie was their brain. Now another eastern culture people need to understand is that grades are everything; getting into good university is everything. There is something implied in the movie is about how those students were best students of the school and they have a bright future because they study hard and smart. Quite a few movies implies how stressful of the eastern education is and some writer thinks it is scary if he adds horror element on top of that stress will attract Audience. Based on the experience of the school in the UK, I really don't think English students will ever get it. Well, if you can think of it this way, you are fighting into the night after 1am in the morning trying to compete with one hundred thousands other students in the exam and there is a ghost start bothering you and try to rip your gut out, I think people will get disturbed by it.

By the way, I have seen way much more disturbing movies than it, so I am kinda numb. However, I thought among all the Korean horror movies, they do have some new ideas involving some psychological traps and supernatural activities. I liked the singer-actor small girl, it is refreshing to see a pure school girl for a change than teen-model wannabes getting slashed.

Worth a watch if you want to see something different. The movie is not that smart, direction was OK, story is fine if you are patient, please don't expect too much acting in a horror movie, in which I mean it is good enough. Try to get a friend grew up from Eastern Asian environment, you might enjoy this movie more if you know our culture.