Pyega

'Pyega' follows the Blair Witch Project formula almost to a t. From the setting of a documentary about a haunting to the first person hand held camera perspective to dimly lit scenes and plenty of screaming: the recipe for this type of horror has become common place at this point. Although this is a Korean movie it has none of the hallmarks of Asian cinema, instead it insists on adhering so closely to Blair Witch that it becomes nothing but an exercise in tedious repetition.

The haunted house in question is half ruined to such a point that it is already dangerous without any claims to a supernatural entity with a malign intent. Perhaps the one saving grace of this movie, apart from the decent acting, is that despite a good one third of it being too dark to see anything at all in the final scenes the viewer does get to glimpse at something disturbing.

Ultimately, there is not anything new or exciting about this movie and it ends up being rather disappointing. Coming in 2010 it is something of an anachronism in the world of horror in the way in reiterates well treaded ground without a hint of originality.

"Pyega" ("The Deserted House") tells the story of a group of filmmakers that set off to film a documentary about a team of paranormal investigators. The team decides to visit and investigate a factory where a whole family was slaughtered and a ghost is said to appear and drive people insane. Well, it's safe to say that it doesn't go well.

It doesn't go well for the team and the movie itself. Although a decent horror movie, with some very creepy situations (that are sometimes ruined by horrible visual effects - i.e. the camera pixelizing) the only thing that saves this film is the overall atmosphere of the place. I've had my own paranormal adventures with a group of people, going to supposedly haunted places and recording EVPs and etc, and this atmosphere was top notch, so I connected with it at some point. Although some of the activities they set out to do while on site are ridiculous and unheard of, which can break the atmosphere at times.

The movie is also a slow builder, which makes it a bit predictable. The scares are a mix of original and cliché moments, although I've got to give props, because there are times where the movie is supposedly preparing for a hugely done cliché and then strays away from it, building up the tension once again.

The ending was tad disappointing, and I enjoyed the overall exploration of the site a lot more. I also think that the characters could have been a lot more developed, even though this is a "Blair Witch" kind of film with a documentary theme, they could have evolved the characters a bit more for the viewer, because it doesn't make the viewer care at all for them when horrible things happen.

Overall it's a good experience. If you like good atmosphere and psychological horror, watch it, it's not even that long.

6 out of 10.

The kind of movie that wanted to be a slowburn film up until the finale, could not help but show us the goods leading to a disappointing final 10 minutes. The thing about this movie, is that when it decides to be good, it is amazing. There are some genuinely creepy scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat. It even has a WTF! scene where you cannot believe what is happening on the screen. The only problem is, whenever something scary is not happening on screen, there is just boring scenes of people walking around and talking to each other. This destroys the pacing of the movie and makes it a chore to finish. The finale gets confusing for a bit, as you are not exactly sure what is happening. It all leads up to a meaningless jump scene that makes no sense in the context of the found-footage genre. There are even multiple scenes where there is obviously more than one camera being used.

The Good- some truly great horror scenes.

The Bad- rest of the movie is boring.

usually i don't write reviews but as someone who really knows about horror movies, especially those who work with suspense and ghosts, i advice to watch that movie and maybe it is best then to stop watching it before the last 10 minutes. like so many times the rating of the others is totally inapropriate for a movie who understands to build up the atmosphere so well and which has decent acting with a lot of scenes that do scare the hell out of you. but for getting a scare you have to go into it, just like every horror movie. that is how our brain works.

so definitely try the movie if you love suspense ghost horror.

+great atmosphere +overall great acting +nicely placed shock scenes

-reveals too much at the end and becomes therefore plump -some scenes tend to get a little too long

This was the first horror movie I saw this year (2011), Now this year almost gone. I am review it 11 months late! (Because i have total forgot about it)

I was looking forward to this movie when I saw the trailer. made it look really creepy and scary! but it either of them!

The plot: Over the course of 42 years, 6 went missing, 8 had accidents and 11 were murdered! Three haunted house club members and three camera crew decide to look into this infamously haunted house, known to be possessed by real ghosts. Ignoring all signs from the other world, they enter this haunted house and disappear without a trace. A video footage of what they shot during their visit was since recovered, which may reveal why and how they disappeared.

This build up for this movie was really dull, nothing really happens until 50min mark of the movie.

When the strange things start to happen, some scene are so dark, I could not make out what the hell was going on!

I did not like the ending at all, it did not make any sense at all!

This movie is a waste of Time, there is not one good think i can say about this movie!