Whispering Corridors

The look of the murky and desolate school corridors where sunlight cannot reach during the afternoon lessons had always given me the creeps. This movie was on the silver-screen while I was in Grade-10, in Turkey. My friends have gone to see it, yet they were so indisposed afterwards. However couple weeks before its screening, we've seen a Jennifer-Love Hewitt flick "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" that was when we had finished that horror movie with belly laughs and roll in the aisles. I was curious to see and to know what was not to laugh of somebody's frightening of ghosts. Somehow, even though my friends were irritated of it, Whispering Corridors made a good box-office hit in Turkey. It must have inspired some serious masses, that in the first decade of 2000s' Turkish Horror-Suspense Fiction have used remarkable pieces from Whispering Corridors whether directly or indirectly. Then Taylan Brothers adapted a low-quality copycat from this already adapted adaptation. Making double adaptation for a piece of art didn't make sense on the payoff and the viewer felt it thoroughly. No one ever liked this adaptation; and it remained as a pathetic Turkish version: Okul(2004). That failure of Turkish cinema made me search for its origin. Yet till yesterday I hadn't have a chance to see this psycho-horror.

Now watching it for the first time after 10 years of its release, it's clear to realize that Horror is no Horror if there is no Psycho in it. Whispering Corridors is para-psychologically successful and realistic. People know in secret that these types of extra-ordinary and super-natural happenings do really occur in real life.

The story takes place on a country-side all-girl private school in South Korea, the year 1998. Presumably on a Sunday, the day before the new semester starts, the president of the teachers' committee of the school(Mrs.Parks) is getting killed right after the killer stole the 1993 and 1996 student yearbooks. We -the viewers- get 3 clues of the killer that she has the capitals P.C. from her desk, she commits her murders barefoot and she carefully leaves no evidence making the murders seem like suicides. After the semester starts, one of the male teachers of the school entrusts a class of girls with a task to hush up the rumours about the suicide among the students of the whole school. For this purpose, every week the committee of teachers choose "the clerk for the week" out of students of the same class. Meantime, there is a very strict racism storming in the air among the teachers for the student children of the Shaman families. A girl from the chosen class, whose mother is a Shaman priestess, begins getting affected while she used to call spirits to reveal the exam scores before they're announced or reveal whoever is virgin or not among her friends. That way, her friends always show respect to her, frightening of her but loving her at the same time. Soon, we get more clues about the murderer after she kills the night guard of the school. The murderer is very unpredictable, and the best thing is that each time when the mystery takes control on us trying to solve the murders; the murderer is getting killed. So, technically the spirits which curses the school and those students who are cursed-each time a new student- were the actual offenders. One by one girls of the chosen class lose their minds and in order to kill their victims they must trade their souls in with the spirits, so that the spirits can manipulate them kill their victims.

Technical aspects are very low due to the low budget. Even though the audio quality is considerable. To capture the actors' voices more clearly I don't think the film crew had a boom operator though. The tensioned atmosphere is the true accomplishment of the camera movements, some degree of lighting adjustments, camera locations and chosen angles. Storytelling is very ambitious that despite the editing is mediocre, still the film keeps its fluency. Only watch out for the last 20 minutes! It becomes a captivity of total paranoia.

While I was staring empty-minded at the closing credits, witnessed on how easy the deepest emotions of a human heart can destroy everything in one's life; I asked myself how in earth can someone make a movie like that so as to reveal what's unseen of the psychopathic murders. What a brave and hard job! What an amazing concept! If only it could have been produced more attractive to the viewer with a better screening quality, a better acting, a better screenplay, a better editing. The total commitment and self-belief of the production crew carries its importance to the highest standards; there we are taught how important the pre-production phase of a raw production material which was based on a very widely known and so told school rumour.

If producers who are only looking for gaining box-office receipts with a horror movie and they hesitate to scratch and scrabble the concept of the fear; then they cannot reflect the reality or it just remains unreasonable as a work of imagination. For Yeogo Goedam didn't fall into this trap, it's a must-see cult horror.

The malevolent ghost of a teenage suicide victim haunts the corridors of a Korean school, murderously attacking members of staff. New teacher Eun-young Hur (Mi-yeon Lee) investigates, eventually discovering the shocking truth behind one pupil's mysterious past.

Spooky Korean ghost story Whispering Corridors was released the same year as Hideo Nakata's Ringu, but unlike its Japanese counterpart, it failed to become an international hit and never received the dubious honour of a Hollywood remake. To be honest, I find it easy to understand why: it's extremely slow moving and not very scary.

That's not to say that there is nothing to like about the film: there's loads of lovely cinematography, quality acting, a haunting soundtrack, a nice array of easy-on-the-eye Korean cuties, and the story explores several interesting themes, including loss of friendship, coping with loneliness, and abuse of power. But with very little to set the spine a-tingling, I still cannot not help but feel a little disappointed—after all, this is supposed to be a horror film, isn't it?

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

While investigating the school files, the frightened teacher Mrs. Park startles and calls the young teacher Eun-young Hur (Mi-yeon Lee), telling her that the deceased Jin-ju Jang is back. The line dies and Mrs. Park is attacked and killed by a ghost. On the next morning, the teenager Jae-yi Yoon (Kang-hie Choi) waits for her friend Ji-oh Lim (Gyu-ri Kim), who has the ability to call the spirits, and they begin a close friendship. The abusive and aggressive Mr. Oh, a.k.a. Mad Dog, is the substitute of Mrs. Park and prohibits Ji-oh to paint and compares the performances of the pretty So-young Park (Jin-hie Park) and the weird Jung-sook Kim(Ji-hye Yun), raising a barrier between the two former friends. Miss Hur misses her former friend Jin-ju, who committed suicide, and while trying to contact her, she discloses a dark secret about the past of her friend and Mrs. Park.

I believe that the first point that impresses in "Yeogo Goedam", a.k.a. "Whispering Corridors', at least for Westerns, is the abusive treatment spent by the teachers with their students, brutally spanking and offending the harmless girls. I do not know if it is usual and acceptable this behavior of teachers, or if the intention of the director is to criticize and denounce how terrible this type of education might be. The story about friendship, needy and revenge has a magnificent cinematography, movements and angles of camera and some subtle insinuation of lesbianism. The performances are very convincing and my vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Whispering Corridors is a slow moving, but engrossing, ghost story set in an all-girl's school in Korea. There have been a number of Asian horror films released in the U.S. in the past few years, but as this one was made before most, I think of it more as a trend-setter than a copycat. While much of the horror is subtle and implied, there are moments where the horror slaps you in the face with some very vivid imagery. The rest of the story dealing with the relationships between the girls and the teachers is not the normal kind of thing I go for, yet here it's very well done. It doesn't seem as clichéd as most American films dealing with teens seem to be. The acting is top drawer and adds a lot to making the film work. I wish I could point out one or two of the performances that really stand out, but I don't speak Korean and all the names look alike to me.

Whispering Corridors probably wouldn't work for those not patient enough to allow the film to slowly unfold. And while I may not have enjoyed it as much as some of the more recent Asian offerings like A Tale of Two Sisters, it's an enjoyable enough experience.

Whispering Corridors has much in common with the current tide of horror movie offerings from Japan. However, it is hardly derivative. The material may be recycled, but the filmmakers present it in a way that is different and anything but stereotypical. Don't watch this film expecting to see a massive body count and flying limbs. There are moments when you will see why this movie is classified as a horror film, but like most ghost stories, the power of this movie is demonstrated by what the filmmakers chose not to show us. The pace is slow and deliberate. I found it almost hypnotic, but it never lags. Some of the story elements are very convoluted, but ultimately this does not detract from the overall appeal of Whispering Corridors. A movie for the thinking horror fan.