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In a very
competitive South Korean school, the
top 20 students have been selected to be part of
a special class to prepare them for the college
entrance exam. Everyone's tired after a long
semester and are struggling to stay awake in their
desks when the class is suddenly interrupted by
some very disturbing images on the TV screen
which shows their class mate in a water tank.
A voice tells the students that in order for their
class mate to survive, they have to solve a
question. If they fail, the girl will die and
the game will continue.
Saw meets Battle Royale in this surprisingly
successful South Korean horror flick. Since 2004,
South Korea has struggled to make a profit with
their horror movies which has resulted in mediocre
rip-offs and unimpressive ghost stories. When
2007's South Korean horror flicks were released
in cinemas last summer (Korean horror flicks are
always released in the summer time), South Korean
horror industry hit rock bottom. The movies were
plain awful and the moviegoers even left the
cinemas right in the middle of such movies as
The Evil Twin and Muoi. This summer, no one even
dared to release a local horror flick despite the
fact that many had all ready started production
in 2007. Death Bell however wasn't afraid of a
little competition and decided to go for it.
Well, they scored. Big time. Death Bell is the
best Korean horror flick since A Tale Of Two
Sisters and it has the box-office results to
prove it. This time they've dropped the ghost
concept almost all-together and instead focused
on making a clever horror flick filled with
panic and hysteria. It's obvious that the main
inspirations here were Saw and Battle Royale but
it's actually quite an interesting and certainly
a very entertaining mix. Death Bell has a group
of students in panic as a serial killer is
kidnapping the teens one by one, forcing the
remaining students to answer questions if they
want their friends to stay alive. Unfortunately
the questions are very difficult riddles and it
seems to be impossible to answer them in time.
Death Bell could very well be the start of something
new, I actually have faith in that this could
bring South Korea back into the game. It's fast-paced,
it's bloody (not gory), it's very well executed
and naturally the cinematography is beautiful.
What impressed me the most was how they had dared
to make something so controversial. I mean, we've
always known that Japan likes to do controversial
things so Battle Royale wasn't that big of a chock
but South Korea has always seemed like a very
conservative country to me so I certainly didn't
expect to see a teacher beat a 16-year old student
to death with a big rock - repeatedly.
Another great quality that this movie holds is
that it starts out almost like a comedy. We get
to see the main characters in happy situations
and we immediately bond with all of them so for
the first 30 minutes or so this is basically a
horror comedy. Once the horror starts however,
the humour is gone and we're in for an outstanding
horror movie that is as terrifying as it is
suspenseful. Naturally it doesn't come without
its fair share of flaws however. The ghost theme
isn't COMPLETELY dropped and I felt like they
could've done so much more with the concept and
gone so much further. Hate me for this if you want
but Death Bell would actually be the perfect
movie to remake because it's a terrific horror
movie but it could be tweaked into one of the
best horror flicks ever.
It's nice to see South Korea back in the game
though and things are looking up again with
movies like Hansel & Gretel and now Death Bell.
Due to the fact that this was such a smash-hit,
two other horror flicks were rushed into the
cinemas (Loner & The Truck) but flopped big-time
(I'm talking Captivity-flop) so I don't think
that we can expect much from them but hopefully
South Korea will be back in the game next summer.
Maybe we'll finally get "Ghost Story" which was
due last summer but was never released.
A lot, and I mean A LOT of blood splatter but
nothing that graphical that I can point out.
Extremely intense soundtrack, I couldn't have
asked for a better one actually.
South Korean horror cinema makes a comeback with
this terrific horror flick which will make you
jump, laugh, scream and perhaps even hide behind
your pillow. If you've missed good Asian horror
flicks, Death Bell is certainly not one to miss.
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