The Night Shift

Spooky but not too scary South Korean horror anthology. Jo Ba Reun tried to draw a line between seemingly disjointed stories that happened in Gwanglim. Sadly his bag of tricks became quite predictable and repetitive. Character build-ups weren't solid either.

The terrors presented are not all in the form of figures with horrific scary faces, but supernatural phenomena that disturb the mental. The thing that feels most interesting about this film, the selection of terror for terror, is the plot. In five different horror stories there are detailed plots that connect them. The plot is made in such detail that you will see in one story there are pieces of another story.

As I stumbled upon the 2021 South Korean horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch it, on account of it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen. And given my fascination with both horror and Asian cinema, of course it was a given to have to watch "Goe-Gi-Maen-Syon" (aka "Ghost Mansion").

Writer and director Jo Ba-Reun actually did a good job here with the small stories and segments. Yeah, this was an anthology, which I wasn't aware of. But the stories are nicely connected to one another and while each story is a stand-alone story, the connections to each other story was just nicely constructed and made for a more wholesome viewing experience. Normally I am not overly keen on horror anthologies, but this one was quite good.

The acting performances in the stories were good and they had a good cast ensemble together for fleshing out the characters and bringing the stories to life.

Visually then "Goe-Gi-Maen-Syon" was quite good. This wasn't a shock and awe inspiring horror anthology, but more of a dark, brooding and slow burning kind, where atmosphere was really important. And they pulled it off nicely, because these stories permeated in dark atmosphere.

I was genuinely entertained by writer and director Jo Ba-Reun's "Goe-Gi-Maen-Syon". And if you enjoy Asian horror cinema, then it is quite worth checking out.

My rating of "Goe-Gi-Maen-Syon" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Been trying to find this movie to watch for awhile. Searching on Streaming (Tubi etc), it will not show up if you search Ghost Mansion. The cover and title reads The Night Shift. Enjoy. 🤘

GHOST MANSION, as a title, is something of a misnomer; this film is instead set in one of those run-down and haunted apartment complexes so beloved of Asian ghost stories. There are shades of DARK WATER in the location and this is a far cry from the quality of that, but it does offer something else in the shape of an anthology with the wraparound segment featuring a young writer researching some stories. As ever, the stories are a mixed bag, the first about ghost kids being quite poor, but it does improve. The mould story is a ghastly delight and the one about a serial killer really zings. This isn't exactly a classic, but it'll do.