Popular reviews

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  Review by Geoffrey Broomer ★★★

  A group of friends begin to die under mysterious circumstances, with the investigating officers following the killings to a vengeful ghost. Arang is a police procedural which has a twist, but no real mystery, featuring deaths – that are completely justified. Taking its name and basic premise from folklore found in the Miryang region, the end result is a simple haunting very similar to Ghost Story (1981).

  Arang’s twist really didn’t work for me, though your mileage may vary. There are a lot of generic elements, which make it a hard film to sell – which is a shame, since the initial sequence is beautifully executed. It has a decent pace, some nice jump scares, and solid performances – but…

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  Review by Lilian Kong ★½

  lol I love a good trashy Korean horror film
  Arang recycles literally everything done in contemporary Asian horror before without much shame: long black hair female oppressed ghost, a shower scene in which long black hair appears out of nowhere, hands scratching at the floor without fingernails, the Japanese Red Room urban legend in which you open up a mysterious tab on your computer and you die, and a creepy but also cute little Asian ghost child. The cinematography is super conventional as well, forcing us to identify with the ghost's POV for added creepy effect (and also to help sympathize in this case).

  Like most Korean horror I've seen, the moral message is very blatant and conventional (don't rape)…

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  Review by blair 🍒 ★★★★★

  5 stars because Lee Dong-wook was in it. .... the movie was cool too ig

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  Review by Flo ★★★½

  Haunted Village ist ein koreanischer Horrorfilm, welchen ich vorher noch nie gehört habe, aber mir gut gefallen hat. Dabei ist die Handlung zwar nicht sehr orginell, aber dafür wird diese gut erzählt. Allerdings braucht der Film ein bisschen, bis er richtig in fahrt kommt, aber wird dann sehr spannend. Desto länger der Film geht, desto mehr erfährt der Zuschauer über die Taten, welche im Film begangen wurden. Die Polizeiarbeit ist sehr spannend und gut inzeniert, aber das trifft auch auf den Horror zu. Außerdem hat der Film eine gute Atmosphäre, welche sogar manchmal sehr beklemmend ist. Die Figuren sind gut im Film, da der Zuschauer einiges über die Figuren erfährt und diese wurden dazu auch noch sehr gut geschrieben. Die…

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  Review by Sudar 😌 Manto ★★

  So Young dan Hyun Ki menyelidiki kematian beberapa pria dengan janggal. Kamera memosisikan korban dibunuh oleh setan yang keluar lewat aplikasi pesan di komputer.

  Riwayatnya, setan itu dulunya gadis di desa pesisir yang diperkosa ramai-ramai dan bunting. Minjung namanya. Dia dibunuh pun di gudang garam, tertimbun kwintalan garam, dan jasadnya awet tanpa susut selama sembilan tahun. Aneh sih. Andaipun garam sifatnya mengawetkan dan antiseptik, bukan berarti jasad akan utuh sempurna. Seperti mumifikasi di Mesir yang menggunakan minyak, balsam, gum, dan resin. Itu pun tetap menyusutkan massa jasadnya. Okelah, namanya film.

  Meski horor, Arang tidak seram. Karena teknik menakut-nakutinya amat payah. Nggak ada tarik ulur. Setelah mayat-mayat korban diteliti dokter dan mengandung sianida, akhirnya terungkap fakta sesungguhnya. Meskipun mestinya ada video tambahan bagaimana pelaku mengerjai korbannya. Cuma terlihat jelas saat memberi rokok saja ke salah satu korban.

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  Review by Sven Roth ★★★½

  How could I miss that for all the time. This movie have everything that I love. From black hair vengance ghost to good crime story. It is by the way more crime than horror. On top of that awesome acting, especially Yun-ah Song, and some great ideas to make the film unpredictable, even though you think you know what will happen.

  So overall another great piece of cinema from South Korea.

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  Review by rits ★★★★ 1

  dongwook's audition tape for sfh

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  Review by reGretgul ★★★★

  Nothing ensures justice like a vengeful spirit with a grudge😍

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  Review by Aubra_ ★★★★

  This was actually so so much better than I thought it was going to be. But, Lee Dong Wook’s in it, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

  Part ghost story, part thriller, part something else, and obviously influenced by The Ring, Arang takes a minute to kick off, but brings all sorts of feelings by the end. 

  (Pro-tip - if you’re going to watch this, don’t look it up on Wikipedia until you’re finished. The second paragraph of the plot section spoils the whole movie)

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  Review by jax ★★★½

  this was a thirst watch for ldw and i was not disappointed

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  Review by Ben Challoner ★★★

  This is by far the most westernised paint by numbers K-Horror I’ve seen so far this month but I still had a lot of fun with it! 

  It is a crafty one because for almost the entire runtime it plays through every trope in the book, from a haunted video, to long dark haired ghost girls, to unexplained murders linked by a shocking act from the past, but then it shakes things up a bit with a sneaky little twist that, although I saw it coming a mile away, still gives it the edge it needed to make the film a worthwhile watch. It’s not particularly scary. or gory,  or even tense, but it does deal with some confronting themes…

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  Review by inuhodo ★★★

  adding this to further my lee dongwook cinematic universe