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Whispering Corridors
1998 - R - 105 Mins.
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| Director: Ki-Hyung Park | | Producer: Cine 2000 | | Written By: Jung-Ok In, Ki-Hyung Park | | Starring: Kang-hie Choi, Gyu-ri Kim, Min-jeong Kim, Yu-seok Kim, Mi-yeon Lee, Yong-nyeo Lee |
| Review by: James O'Ehley |
| Official Site: www.asiaextreme.co.uk |
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Ewwww, who farted?
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Nothing much really happens in this Korean horror flick about an all-girl school that is being terrorised by the ghost of a former pupil. She had committed suicide there several years ago after being ostracized by both her peer group and the school’s teachers.
Things kick off promisingly though with a teacher discovering some secret about said pupil. Of course she does this late at night at the deserted school during an electrical storm. Needless to say she is soon killed off by a supernatural presence in the guise of one of the girl pupils. What breathless discovery did she make? All is revealed at the end of the movie, but the chances are that you’d have a hard time figuring out just what the heck it is since by then things have degenerated into such a series of subplots and flashbacks that, while you’ll catch the overall gist of it all, you’ll be hard-pressed to explain any specifics.
I knew someone who always went “what now? what now?” whenever she didn’t understand any specific plot point in a movie. I knew precisely what she felt like during 'Whispering Corridors.'
Anyway, after the first murder, nothing really happens for the next hour of running time until the next murder: when an abusive and unpleasant male teacher gets his well-deserved comeuppance. In-between we are subjected to several subplots involving some of the pupils and a teacher who had been a pupil at the school previously and knew the girl who had committed suicide. Oh yeah, and lots of atmospheric creepy shots and music – but, at the risk of sounding like one of those gore hound types who read Fangoria – there just isn’t enough happening horror-wise in this movie! All the atmospherics will just annoy you – BECAUSE NOTHING EVER HAPPENS!
Now, get me wrong: a horror movie can be quite effective without any high body count, but at the risk of sounding like one of those gore hound types who regularly reads Fangoria, WHISPERING CORRIDORS is simply anaemic. Sure, there are some genuinely creepy moments, but they are so far spaced in-between that it is difficult for one to sustain much interest.
The marketing blurbs at the back of the DVD cover proclaim that this movie kick-started the current Asian horror flick explosion we are seeing, but that is rather difficult to swallow even though the movie did inspire two sequels. Still, Asian horror movie fans would still want to check out WHISPERING CORRIDORS even if it is to see the movie which the South Korean authorities actually tried to ban because of its portrayal of the all-girl school as a cesspit of abuse, brutality and repression (which sounds pretty much like my school years during the Apartheid regime in South Africa).
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