Since I decided to review some movies that I watched, but didn't review right away, I have fallen a bit behind on my plans. I'm trying to catch up though. It doesn't help that there are a few horror films coming out in theaters. I have been wanting to do a series review for a while now and decided on the Whispering Corridors set. From my understanding, the sequels are just in name only, but that is fine. Netflix had all five movies at one point but then they no longer list the second film. I was able to buy a set off Amazon that has the first three in it, so that worked out. I won't be watching these movies back-to-back, as I have other movies I want to work in as well, but I will get around to all of them. The first movie, Whispering Corridors (1998), is where the series gets its name from, so let's dive in and see what I thought of it.
Eun-young (Mi-yeon Lee) is a former student who will be returning as a teacher soon. Just before her return, she is contacted by a teacher there telling her that Eun-young's friend is still at the school. She is dead, but she is still there. The teacher is found hung at the school the next day. As En-young tries to figure out what the phone call was all about, Ji-oh (Gyu-ri Kim) is starting to become close friends with Jae-yi (Kang-hee Choi). As they start to learn more about each other, secrets begin to come into the light. Is there a ghost and what does it want if there is one?
Whispering Corridors is a movie from South Korea by co-writers Jung-Ok In and Ki-hyeong Park, who also directed. It is a little weird that this movie managed to spawn four sequels and a remake. I discovered that a remake is coming out this month. From the trailer of it, it doesn't look like it has much in common with this film. Anyway, I said this movie was a little weird to base a horror franchise off of because it comes across as more of a drama than horror. There are certainly some horror type things playing out during the story, but for the most part, it is just a drama. There is one death right away pretty much but then there is nothing besides some creepy music here and there until the next death just after the hour mark. It does amp up the horror side a bit more but never raises the tension a lot. I found the story interesting all the same though. Something that was shocking was how the teachers would treat some of their students. Apparently, the abuse was a real problem in schools there. What is shown is a teacher smacking students hard and putting them down for whatever reason.
The story mostly has to do with Ji-oh and Jae-vi's friendship but there are also flashbacks that deal with Eun-young's time at the school and her friendship with the suspected ghost of the school. A smaller plot has to do with two other friends who the teachers are pitting against each other so their friendship has grown apart. It would seem the teachers find a girl at the all-girls school who is smart and then tries to destroy the friendships if they think said friend is holding back the smart one. We never really see the ghost early on. We never really see Eun-young's friend in the flashbacks either. This has to do with the ghost looking the same as she did when she was alive. One of the girls is a ghost, but which one? I didn't think much of it while watching Whispering Corridors, but then, later on, I was wondering just how a ghost is able to fit in without any of the teachers wondering who she is, even if she is using a different name. One teacher does figure it out, which leads to her death, but this was nine years after the student's death. What was weird about that is that it was the same teacher from nine years ago so I would hope she would have noticed before that long of a time. Then again, the film does hint but doesn't confirm of course, that the ghost only finds a spot in the class every three years. This same teacher didn't seem well liked by the students so that made me wonder why the ghost waited so long to kill her off.
Even though there is a handful of deaths to be found in Whispering Corridors, there isn't much going on as far as effects go. There is some blood to be found here and there and people get stabbed, but nothing all that gory really. The acting seemed like it was pretty good at least. I enjoyed all the actors and their characters fairly well. Yong-soo Park plays the part of the meanest teacher and really steals the scenes that he is in. He stood out to me the most in this movie. Nothing against the other actors though, as I did think they all did a good job with their roles.
One the person who is a ghost is revealed as such, it took me a couple of minutes to put everything together. Unlike some movies here, that has a flashback that puts all the pieces together for you, you just have to be paying attention in order to know what is happening here. This wasn't a bad thing for me, as I usually get annoyed by the hand holding. It isn't a hard story to follow but I still had to think about it in order to put everything together. Once the ghost decides to move on, at least I assume she did, things get a tad weird. There is also a bit of a twist before the credits roll that would seemingly set up a sequel, but all sequels are their own stories so that never goes anywhere. Whispering Corridors isn't a bad movie really, but I guess I just felt it didn't push the horror side of things enough. It ended up leaving more questions than answers at times, which can really bug me. Even so, I'm glad that I was able to get around to it at long last. I'm looking forward to the next film as I have read that the sequels do a better job of trying to make things scary. I guess I will find out eventually. As for all of you, I think it just depends on what you are looking for, I haven't come across too many bad reviews at least, so I'm thinking that most horror fans will enjoy this one at the very least. It may not have been a great film, but it was fun to watch.
3 out of 5 Makes me wonder if there was a Ghost in any of my classes
Eun-young (Mi-yeon Lee) is a former student who will be returning as a teacher soon. Just before her return, she is contacted by a teacher there telling her that Eun-young's friend is still at the school. She is dead, but she is still there. The teacher is found hung at the school the next day. As En-young tries to figure out what the phone call was all about, Ji-oh (Gyu-ri Kim) is starting to become close friends with Jae-yi (Kang-hee Choi). As they start to learn more about each other, secrets begin to come into the light. Is there a ghost and what does it want if there is one?
Whispering Corridors is a movie from South Korea by co-writers Jung-Ok In and Ki-hyeong Park, who also directed. It is a little weird that this movie managed to spawn four sequels and a remake. I discovered that a remake is coming out this month. From the trailer of it, it doesn't look like it has much in common with this film. Anyway, I said this movie was a little weird to base a horror franchise off of because it comes across as more of a drama than horror. There are certainly some horror type things playing out during the story, but for the most part, it is just a drama. There is one death right away pretty much but then there is nothing besides some creepy music here and there until the next death just after the hour mark. It does amp up the horror side a bit more but never raises the tension a lot. I found the story interesting all the same though. Something that was shocking was how the teachers would treat some of their students. Apparently, the abuse was a real problem in schools there. What is shown is a teacher smacking students hard and putting them down for whatever reason.
The story mostly has to do with Ji-oh and Jae-vi's friendship but there are also flashbacks that deal with Eun-young's time at the school and her friendship with the suspected ghost of the school. A smaller plot has to do with two other friends who the teachers are pitting against each other so their friendship has grown apart. It would seem the teachers find a girl at the all-girls school who is smart and then tries to destroy the friendships if they think said friend is holding back the smart one. We never really see the ghost early on. We never really see Eun-young's friend in the flashbacks either. This has to do with the ghost looking the same as she did when she was alive. One of the girls is a ghost, but which one? I didn't think much of it while watching Whispering Corridors, but then, later on, I was wondering just how a ghost is able to fit in without any of the teachers wondering who she is, even if she is using a different name. One teacher does figure it out, which leads to her death, but this was nine years after the student's death. What was weird about that is that it was the same teacher from nine years ago so I would hope she would have noticed before that long of a time. Then again, the film does hint but doesn't confirm of course, that the ghost only finds a spot in the class every three years. This same teacher didn't seem well liked by the students so that made me wonder why the ghost waited so long to kill her off.
Even though there is a handful of deaths to be found in Whispering Corridors, there isn't much going on as far as effects go. There is some blood to be found here and there and people get stabbed, but nothing all that gory really. The acting seemed like it was pretty good at least. I enjoyed all the actors and their characters fairly well. Yong-soo Park plays the part of the meanest teacher and really steals the scenes that he is in. He stood out to me the most in this movie. Nothing against the other actors though, as I did think they all did a good job with their roles.
One the person who is a ghost is revealed as such, it took me a couple of minutes to put everything together. Unlike some movies here, that has a flashback that puts all the pieces together for you, you just have to be paying attention in order to know what is happening here. This wasn't a bad thing for me, as I usually get annoyed by the hand holding. It isn't a hard story to follow but I still had to think about it in order to put everything together. Once the ghost decides to move on, at least I assume she did, things get a tad weird. There is also a bit of a twist before the credits roll that would seemingly set up a sequel, but all sequels are their own stories so that never goes anywhere. Whispering Corridors isn't a bad movie really, but I guess I just felt it didn't push the horror side of things enough. It ended up leaving more questions than answers at times, which can really bug me. Even so, I'm glad that I was able to get around to it at long last. I'm looking forward to the next film as I have read that the sequels do a better job of trying to make things scary. I guess I will find out eventually. As for all of you, I think it just depends on what you are looking for, I haven't come across too many bad reviews at least, so I'm thinking that most horror fans will enjoy this one at the very least. It may not have been a great film, but it was fun to watch.
3 out of 5 Makes me wonder if there was a Ghost in any of my classes
