"Voices" DVD

And we've reached the midpoint of the After Dark Horrorfest, folks. So far, I've been pretty well on, I think, with the ordering choices, but today just might have blown me off course completely. Today we're tackling Voices, and here's the interesting part--this is based on a comic book series.

Here, a young woman believes she is marked for death after witnessing the horrific murder of two close relatives. Thus, she puts herself on the run, hoping to escape what she believes to be her inevitable fate. In the process, she begins to discover a long-dormant secret, and as she runs from her end, she finds out more and more until the ultimate conclusion. Can she outrun her fate? Or will the voices take her down?

I have to admit that there are some really, really sweet moments in here. There's one great scene involving the near-death of a bride--watch the scene go from sedate pleasantries to a body on the floor in the space of literally seconds. In fact, much of this is an excellent idea, as we're left asking one big question: who's going to try and kill this poor girl next? There are attempts on her life from literally every corner--every five, ten minutes or so someone else is going to take a whack at her and we're not even going to see it coming for the most part.

I'm especially surprised by this one--it's a Korean horror flick and it seems to only tangentially involve ghosts. Under normal circumstances, Korean horror loves to crank out the ghost stories, but this time around they focused more on people and their evil desires, only using the ghosts more as a fulcrum or a catalyst to let the people involved launch off on some really nasty horror exercises. I find it impossible to identify a movie like, a development tha leaves me both shocked and pleasantly surprised. Is it possible to be pleasantly shocked?

Voices may be one of the best Korean horror flicks I've ever seen by virtue of the fact that it's different from virtually every other Korean horror flick I've ever seen. So many of them are so similar, catching something that can be called new and different with any degree of accuracy is, like I said, welcome.

And I'll tell you this much--the ending is just downright unbelievable. Patently unbelievable, in fact. I mean, wow. This is just amazing--it's the kind of thing you never see coming. It's literally a multiple twist ending, and it's one of the best I've seen in a long time.

The special features include English and Spanish subtitles, and Miss Horrorfest webisodes.

All in all, I'm downright amazed by Voices, because it's so very different from all the rest. It's a very worthy addition to the After Dark Horrorfest, and I only wish I haven't peaked already. There's four more to go, you know--and hopefully it only gets better from here.

Voices
***
DVD
Directed by Oh Ki-Hwan
Written by Oh Ki-Hwan, Kang Kyung-Ok
Starring Yoon Jin-Seo, Lee Ki-Woo, Park Ki-Woong
Produced by Cho Sung-Woo
R
85 mins
2009

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