23:59

It's not bad, but it's far from good, but as I love the curse/haunting horror theme, and alternative films, very pleasant to watch a Singaporean film, some small flaws, made for less demanding cinephiles to trash horror lovers, I liked it ....

This Singaporean horror has a concept and simply doesn't make best use of it. The movie starts strong but quickly stumbles into mediocrity.

It tells a story set on a military base about a group of young recruits and the supernatural events that transpire on and around the base.

It looks fantastic, considerably better than I would have expected and the writing is well above par as well. Sadly though it manages to be creepy in places the story is a bit of an incoherent mess and by around the half way mark it quickly becomes apparent that it isn't going anywhere good.

The ideas behind it though solid were clearly in the wrong peoples hands and instead of potential being met we have this messy little feature.

Watchable but ultimately fails on most fronts.

The Good:

Couple of nice ideas

Production values

The Bad:

Plot falls apart badly

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

It's not just Japan that likes their muddled inconclusive plots

Jump scares and all that. Is that something you look forward to? The story itself is intriguing to a degree. But overall this is as generic as you probably expect it to be. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing. But it also is not something that will challenge anyone who has seen a couple of movies (especially in the horror genre of course).

Acting is not a strong suit either, but the movie does more or less satisfy if you set a low bar and just want a snack. Not all movies have to be exceptional or fantastic. If you can dig that, watch it, if not you may feel this being a waste of time

The movie sets up the basis for the spirits, but in two ways, and then throws in a third. One is that a villager was killed in the past by a recruit, so at 23:59 its spirit comes forth. The other is that if a pregnant woman commits suicide, she and her daughter will come to haunt. And the recruits do see spirits. The movie has a group of recruits in training. There is a suicide, and another one dies under mysterious circumstances, so they are on edge. Their Sgt even provides them with talismans and later a medium is brought in. While all the recruits have similar and short haircuts, the Sgt has a very bushy do, and the officer certainly isn't regulation. That is a detail that should have been trivial to know and fix. The movie is decently done, although if what was shown was reflective of their training, not much of a fighting force. It simply is not that interesting although if one was familiar with the legends, perhaps more so.

I had no expectations going into this one, and was pleasantly surprised.

The film is set on an Army training base in the Seventh Month, when ghosts and spirits are said to roam free. There are all types of rituals to appease and avoid them, which most people take part in even if they don't seem to believe.

A new group of recruits is just about to finish their training there when things begin to go wrong. I won't go into detail because I want people to see this for themselves, but I will say that there are vengeful spirits, wrongful deaths, and lots of creepy atmosphere! The rainy jungle march is one of the best scenes! One of the group is missing, and the instructor has them count off "one...two..three..four..." Something right behind them whispers "fffiiivveee"....

The movie does move a bit slowly at times, but I was never bored. The acting was fine, and the characters were likable enough that I cared about them and what was happening to them. Give this one a chance, you won't be sorry!