Bloody Reunion

I watched this film back to back with The Maid, which meant that I got to watch that delightful Tartan Asia Extreme video twice, as they won’t let you skip directly to the main menu on either disc. That’s not obnoxious at all, no sirree!

The movie itself is at least better than The Maid, in part because, rather than being another in a long line of Asian ghost stories, it’s actually an attempt at recreating the 80s slasher movie. For most of the movie, this actually works pretty well, with the cast actually having some characterization thrown to them, and an interesting motive for the killer. The violence is also pretty graphic, as each character is taken out in an increasingly gruesome way, from one being forced to swallow razor blades, to another having her eyelids stapled open, to another having ants crawling inside of his ear.

This is marred a bit by the required twist ending, which really kind of sucks. It’s not as terrible as the twist to, say, High Tension, which it bears some similarities to, but it’s certainly within spitting distance of it. It at least makes a bit more sense than High Tension’s does, but it does still mar an otherwise very good movie. Still, it’s the best horror movie I’ve yet seen from Korea that didn’t have the name Chan-Wook Park anywhere in the credits, so if you’ve been feeling a little down about the dearth of slasher movies being made since the 80s, you should definitely check this one out.

Rating: ***