[Nightmare]
Plot:Seven friends will die one by one for protecting a terrible secret. Can a vengeful spirit be stopped?

Cast: Gyu-ri Kim, Ji-won Ha, Jeong-yun Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Jun-Sang Yu, Jun Jeong, Hye-yeong Jo.

My Thoughts:Good Korean horror.

Review:"Nightmare" is one of the few foreign horror's to take on the american slasher movie and actually come out with something pleasant. The film follows a group of college friends who harbor a dark secret about a young girl who was thought to have commited suicide many years ago. Usually a plot like this would have american slasher movie written all over it, but this film really benefited from a foreign viewpoint and to it's credit, ended up being a pretty eerie ride.

Director/Writer Beyeong-ki Ahn put together a very solid script, all the while his directing angles really helped to give the movie the perfect mood and scenery for alot of the pics more intense supernatural scenes. The plot is one which you can easily lose track of should you not be paying attention throughout. It's really not one of those films you can watch for the first 20 minutes, leave, and then return 15 minutes later and still be in the loop about everything.

The sprit in the film, which is picking off the group of kids one by one comes in the form of a young girl, as it does with most asian horror films. Not nearly as scary as Sadako (Ringu), or the grudge woman, but still creepy nonetheless. And really pissed off to boot. "Nightmare" doesn't offer up a ton of blood, gore, and violence...it rather eases it's way into the more graphic nature and parts as the film moves along, and the spirit gets angrier and angrier and closes in one the final few remaining students.

A style which I personally approve of more than the immediate blood-soaked first and second acts, which in most horror films leave nothing good for act three. The acting in the film is very good, per usual with asian horror movies. And alot of the victims of the angry spirit seemed genuinely scared when it attacked. Always a plus in a film like this, where the viewers enjoyment or interest of the movie relies on the believability of the thespians performances. "Nightmare" ends on a sad note, but ultimately a really eerie and disturbing one nonetheless.

There's also a very normal yet perfect twist to the movie, which instead of going with the huge, standoutish, over-the-top explanation of why what is happening is happening...decides to go with something more normal and believeable from a societal and human condition viewpoint. "Nightmare" is a good Korean horror film, which should entertain anyone who's looking for a good ghost movie to watch to pass the time.

Positives:Great acting and directing. Good story, and some likeable characters. Really eerie moments and some very disturbing ones.

Negatives:Nothing major.

Overall:Good picture.





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