Death Bell

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.

Korean torture slasher set in a school and the torture element actually adds something different to the usual Korean/Japanese school gore fest movie. I was very surprised to find that these short set pieces were very much the best thing about the film. Nasty, gruesome, suspenseful but not drawn out to the point where the audience is also tortured, these were well executed. The rest of the film was much more formulaic and somewhat confusing. The elite students having to solve some question or one of their number dies before them was a fine idea but for some reason was made over complicated and it seemed that right or wrong the victim still got it . I didn't really care about anybody, so as one after the other died it just became a bit of a carrousel , a bloody one, granted. A great start and not a bad finish, surprisingly high production standards apparent but I just lost some interest somewhere along the way.

This is more a slasher film where you count down who is going to be next on the list to be crossed off - it is formula driven. That being said, Death Bell has some very good moments and the middle half brings a lot of suspense and excitement and tension, though the plot gets a bit repetitive after that so you are simply waiting to find out who is the culprit.

The plot is simple: a class full of high grade students are being held captive in their school. An anonymous person has told them they must answer all the questions he gives them or student by student will be killed.

Of course, with Asian horror films, there is usually the usual cliché's - not to say that they won't work - because they usually do. This is no exception - you have your flashbacks, a tormented past and the reflections of adolescent school kids who often make the stupid choices while in stages of panic in their predicament - I guess that is universal.

The choice of music in this film is a bit questioanble as it felt more like a high beat sort of atmosphere that doesn't work at times. The concept is interesting but at the same time the film feels more like a detective game rather than anything really scary - there are only a few moments which made me shudder - and it is mainly shock tactics that don't last for more than a few moments.

Still, it is an entertaining ride. The final payoff at the end - I admit I didn't see it coming and it wasn't too bad. Think of this film like Battle Royale meets Saw.

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