I love it when movies are based on a true story. This movie isn’t exactly based on a true story but it is based on an abandoned psychiatric hospital that still exists in South-Korea. After watching this movie, I was convinced that visiting this building is not on my list when I'll visit South-Korea next year...
I’m not a huge fan of horror movies, mostly because a lot of them are not well made. But this is one of the best horror movies I’ve watched in a while. Warning: it’s not for the faint-hearted.
One of the things I liked about the movie is the concept of the live-streamed video and the camera angles. A young group of volunteers film themselves exploring the abandoned building as the audience follows the adventure live on the web series: Horror Times. Each member has a camera attached on their body that films both them (close-up frontal view) and their point of view. The camera angles make it feel like you are there with them. To make it even more realistic the cast even used their own names!
Of course their adventure goes horribly wrong and there are some classic horror moments that might come off as cheap. But the tension is well build up. At the point where I thought that the movie wasn’t so scary at all, the horror began and there were some good scares. At some point I even turned off the sound, because I was so scared!
Although the cast is largely unknown, I was not bothered since their acting was on point. The only disappointing part is the ending. The ending should be the climax but it’s predictable and it can not top the scary part of a few moments ago. I was basically waiting for the movie to end.
However, I thought it was a good scary movie and I would recommend it. But maybe you should not watch it right before you go to bed, like I did...