The quiet family

This film manages to strike a very tricky balance between humor and suspense. It's funny and tense all at the same time, from start to finish.

It's visually appealing, with interesting characters, and high production values. The acting is uniformly superb, and the plot manages to incorporate good, old fashioned suspense traditions and tropes while remaining fresh and interesting.

If you get a chance to see this, do.

This film is incredibly dynamic. There are multiple concepts at once. It's a horror film yet it's a tragic-comedy. It's a drama yet it's almost a documentary. It's a great film concept and the cinematography is second to none.

It's very slow yet instantly jerks into action. It's got great casting. The actors are flawless. Even down to 5minute appearances. The score is first class and diverse. Rock-glam from the Stray Cats to hip hop. The setting is also a little interesting.

It's based in a remote area outside some woods. There is scheduled yet delayed construction for a "road" which will provide transportation for guests to the inn. However during the film the inn guests are mainly hikers and scenic people.

The opening of the film involves this new family moving into a little run down house. They prepare the house and botch it up ready for guests. They have minimum advertising which is a sign. Literally. They wait for the guests to arrive. This opening scene is lighthearted and slow.

Then the guests eventually arrive. All hell breaks loose. There is a moment of continuous bad luck from the moment the first guest arrives. This is when the film turns to film noir. All in all the film goes from an easy melodrama to something completely insane. It's a marvelous script and the slowness is rewarded by great tense sequences and various dilemmas for the unfortunate home owners.

The film is superb. The casting spot on. The cinematography is awesome. A lot of different shots and slow camera movement to mimic the pace of the film. Then the unfortunate sequences occur the camera shots become more rapid and quick snappy close ups. I'm a big fan of this director and this film has to be his benchmark with the diverse range on offer.

All in all a great film worth tracking down. Comedy; film noir, suspense, horror, isolation and deprivation. Superb acting and direction to match. I recommend it fully. 8 out of 10.

When a family reluctantly becomes proprietors of an inn deep in the woods, it seems doubtful anyone could find their way there. It doesn't help that the family ends up killing nearly all of their guests -- usually under cover of night (and the blackest possible humor). Imagine Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" steered by a gruesomely dysfunctional family, and you have some idea of what this deadpan South Korean film offers. Still more evidence of that country's continuing film renaissance, and easily up to the standard of the best American films.

A South Korean family (dad, mom, uncle, son, and two teen daughters) moves to the woods to open up a lodge in a hiking area. They find themselves restless, anxiously awaiting their first customer. When they finally get one, he is later found dead in his room. The family covers it up to avoid bad publicity. Soon the business finally starts booming--and so does the body count! This story probably sounds familiar to fans of Asian horror. That's because Takashi Miike remade this into "Happiness of the Katakuris," with song and dance sequences, zombies and claymation. "The Quiet Family" contains none of these elements, but it is almost as delightful with its wicked sense of humor. Each family member (my favorite being Mom) has their own amusing quirks, and I found myself chuckling out loud for the first half hour. Even when the story delves into morbid territory, the silly characters still manage to provide the laughs. Watching a "normal" family react to very abnormal situations proves to be very funny. The pace is excellent, though a few of the subplots almost push the story into a ridiculous place.

Ji-woon Kim is also the director of the instant classic "A Tale of Two Sisters." As with that film, the set design, use of rich colors, and innovative camera-work are spectacular and largely responsible for the eerie atmosphere.

"The Quiet Family" borders on absurd, but it never fails to entertain. Despite its over-the-top comedy and ridiculous scenarios, it has a serious overall tone that sets it apart from most other horror/comedies.

My Rating: 7/10.

A very amusing and very black comedy, that plays on the failings of different family members, all trying to run a lodge in the middle of nowhere. A good amount of suspense is combined with the laughs, the film mixing a comedy of errors with slapstick and (many) bloody corpses. Wicked fun definitely not for the whole family.