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South Korea 2007
Director: Shin Terra
Cast: Jeong-min Hwang, Seo-hyeong Kim, In-gi Jung, Su-han Choi, Shin-il Kang, Ji-young Moon
Rating: -
Language: Korean
Release Date: 21 June 2007
Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
The Movie Review
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BLACK HOUSE
( GEOM-EUN JIP ) |
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Amidst so many serial killer thriller movies released this year, Korea contributes one... And a good one. Black House, or in its original title "Geom-eun jip" or "Geomeun jip", being released on June 2007 is actually based on Japanese novel entitled Kuroi Ie (black house) by Yusuke Kishi. Black House is not about supernatural horror, but a horror derived from a serial killer living in an old blackish decaying house. Or in short, Black House...
Jeon Juno (Hwang Jeong-Min) has just got his dream job as an insurance agent. This mild-mannered man is soon already assigned to see how things got done by his supervisor. From the first moment, Juno takes care of things differently, and he deals with compassion instead of indifference and ignorance. However this green employee is about to be tested freakishly hard when Juno is personally asked by a person living in a rundown house situating in a very humble area. Juno already has a bad hunch on the owner, Park Choong-Bae, a creepy and awkward man. Juno's hunch isn't entirely wrong then, when he finds the hanging body of Park's stepson at the boy's room. Afterwards, much to Juno and his boss disbelief, Park already draws up his claim for a huge amount of money. Juno, however, strongly believes that this is a murder. Juno tries to prove this and at the same time warns Park's family about his theory. Juno doesn't know that his kindness will lead to a blood-soaked world.
The storyline of this horror movie starts off a little slow, but it's good to introduce us to the main protagonist. Soon enough, we will know that he's a good man with golden heart, different from what common people stereotyping insurance agent. This is actually what differs Korean movies with other, it has a strong emphasis on emotional feeling. However, even though slow, the mild terror is being sprinkled evenly, thus the audience will never be left alone without tension. This is the kind of horror film where the feeling of terror gradually seeps in to the mind of the audience. So I might say a horror film that's not forgetting about emotional involvement, kudos for that. At least it gives the audience different atmosphere from what several Hollywood movies offer us this year. Even great movies like 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Vacancy (2007) don't give that much of emotional involvement as Black House does.
However that's actually on the other side could be a huge backfire if it falls to the trap, the trap of grown up's stupidity. So, it doesn't imply this movie without flaws, a big flaw for the grown up mind, I'll say. It's bothering to the level of "Unbelievable". Yup, the nice and civilized grown ups are suddenly so passionate and suddenly so selfish and the cliché "I don't believe the protagonist at first" scenes make this good horror flick almost feel like cheap drama show. Several scenes near the end of the movie are also highly guessable for veteran moviegoers.
Now back to its good side, the most appealing side of Black House is the twist, yup an exciting twist that's somehow neglected and replaced with gore only. Black House has a twist in the story that changes the slow-tension into a fast-pace horror film. Moreover the filmmakers of this Asian horror flick don’t forget to also put some gore scenes in it. And man, seeing the gory scenes with Asian atmosphere, is just well, horror.
Black House cleverly combines the psychopath in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) with its infamous house of Hoyt’s. Black House is a must to see for horror aficionados, mostly recalling its different Asian horror tone.
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: 2008
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Home > Asian Home > Black House (Geomeun jip) (2007)
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