Director: Kang Beom-gu
Year: 1981
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Goeshi; A Monstrous Corpse; Grotesque Corpse
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Upon arriving in South Korea, a woman looking to find her sister and a stranger who accompanies her find the area overrun by dead bodies revived from a local experiment being conducted in the area involving ultrasonic wave transmissions being tested on insects to protect the crops and try to stop them.
Review:
Frankly, there’s quite a lot to like with this one. Among the film’s more likable features is the familiar and engaging storyline. The same setup is featured here, involving the use of a special radio transmitter intending to protect crops and vegetables from voracious insects. Instead, it’s discovered that the signals from the broadcasts are reviving the dead from nearby cemeteries and turning them loose in a blood-soaked rampage. Granted, this isn’t an original premise, but it still comes off as serviceable enough here. Things are kept fast and fresh with little downtime as the two come together and head off into the countryside within the first few minutes of the film. As well, the general setup with the characters is the same with the same demeanor and attitude with the same setup of the disgruntled officer investigating the crimes which are quite familiar yet integrated rather nicely. Granted several encounters in the countryside surroundings before even approaching the half-hour mark, there’s plenty of string work here to get the creatures going and move the film along with this somewhat likable setup.
Following this enjoyable setup, the film manages to include a lot of likable zombie action and encounters. Initially focused on the confrontations with bizarre figures in the middle of the woods but unaware of their true nature, the first attacks focus on the two girls each coming across strange bodies wandering through the forest who are identified as deceased individuals by the locals. With the incidents drawing the attention of the police due to the vicinity of the reports and attacks, the intensity becomes enhanced considerably as the action features more zombies coming to life and attacking requiring far more to like involving their escape. From the encounter at the cemetery where the creatures first emerge or the fantastic finale at the hospital that features a lot of fun zombie action in the race to contain and they escape the rapidly escalating situation, it’s quite exciting and generates some wholly likable qualities that hold the film up overall.
This one does have some flaws though. The main issue is the apparent familiarity derived from the setup being so familiar in the first place. The taking of the same setup involving the couple coming together in the countryside to visit a relative, coming across the transmitter conducting tests on insect repellant on local crops, and being inundated with zombies as a result is all taken directly from the other film entirely. The secondary subplot with the detective investigating the crimes and suspecting the couple in the middle of everything rather than looking at the indisputable evidence that the living dead are responsible instead, resulting in nearly-obsessive levels of tracking them down to dispense justice comes directly from the inspiration film. This can cause the film to feel rather familiar and unsurprising at times. The other factor with this one is the lack of overt blood and gore, cutting away from the kills without showing anything and relying only on strangling with bare hands when it’s kept on-screen which kinda distracts from the impressive zombie make-up that gives them a unique look. While not too distracting, these issues do crop up for this one.
Overview: ****/5
An enjoyable enough genre outing when taken on its own terms, the film is really only let down by being so familiar that it still doesn’t come off too bad overall. Fans of European zombie fare, the Asian counterparts, or just plain curious about the origins surrounding the film will have a lot to like here while only viewers who aren’t interested in these aspects should heed caution.
This review was originally posted on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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