Director: Yoon Hong-seung
Year: 2008
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Gosa
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Arriving at school like normal, a group of students at an elite school finds that the series of mysterious disappearances is the result of a vengeful ghost intent on playing murderous games with the faculty as retribution for their behavior towards her, and they must stop the games from getting out of hand.
Review:
This was a likable, if pretty confusing, entry overall. Among the more enjoyable aspects to be had here is the immensely likable setup that allows this one to work well at presenting this kind of intriguing story. The whole series of revelations that come about involving the students being trapped in the school and cut off from help, where they all force the group into a series of impressive tasks that they need to go through to get someone to safety, when it becomes apparent that they've been placed in a trap with the intention of forcing a deadly secret to come into play. The fact that there's a fun sense of panic and chaos that emerges once it starts to dawn on everyone is a great way to help sell the severity of what's going on, putting the group in danger from the beginning, which is quite a fun way to unravel the type of ideas present in the happenings of the ghost and why they're after the group. Not only does this try to make the order in which they're targeted a mystery to be solved, but the atmosphere of the school and the sense of everyone being targeted, the sense of panic as the games started, and how to deal with them offer up a really intriguing way to present the central mystery here.
That makes the resulting series of games and tortures an absolute blast as the extent of the puzzle games becomes chilling. The slow realization that students are missing, only to then be revealed as the culprit caught in a trap and the rest of the classmates being posed with a series of questions to be solved to free them, their failure resulting in graphic deaths which are really fun and bloody, is really good and brings about some solid tension. The first few games, where one student is broadcast being trapped in a glass container slowly filling with water or another chained under burning candles with the dripping wax collecting on their face, finally make people being placed in traps scary for once since it connects them with a game to solve and a gruesome incident tied into their relationship with the student responsible for everything, forcing a series of backstory revelations that fill in the gaps about the individual in question and how they're all connected. It all comes together with the fun finale that knocks the group off in rapid succession in a series of creepy sequences and revelations used to bring everything together, all of which provide some worthwhile points for this one.
There are a few flaws here that bring this one down. The main issue here is the confusing nature of the mystery at hand, as there were some parts to this one that were really enjoyable and some parts that were really infuriating. From the beginning, this is painted as a simple ghost film based on a secretive student who supposedly disappeared last year, and then turns everything around into being a stereotypical revenge plot against the member of the trapped targets who actually killed them. This is an immensely obvious route to take with the story and results in not a whole lot of interest or surprise to come from the supposed shock this is intended to generate, since so many others have done the same thing. The other part that's really hard to get around is the fact that the ghost isn't really all that active in the story, and it's more about solving the questions rather than dealing with a ghost running around kidnapping and killing people, making its involvement more like an afterthought rather than the main focus. This is a shame since it's got a couple of really good, creepy moments, but with a rather inane ability to announce someone's death on-screen that we have just witnessed seconds earlier, it knocks it down somewhat.
Overview: ***.5/5
Somewhat flawed but still highly enjoyable for what it is, there are some watchable aspects to this one that manage to keep it going against a few flaws that keep it down. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, or who are curious about it, will have a lot to like here, while most others turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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