UHM - Review - Death Bell

South Korea seems to pump out a new horror film every week in the country and it's no surprise that there are some films that are just a bunch of horror flicks jammed together. Case-in-point, Death Bell, a movie that suffers an identity crises right to the very end, but somehow still manages to entertain the viewer regardless. The story is a mix of various sub-genres and recent movies, with Saw being the more prominent for me, just without all the excess gore and lengthy torture.

The film starts off as a supernatural effort, with students in a prestigious high school seeing strange happenings around campus. This is where the standard long-haired ghosty makes it appearance a few times to give the characters and us viewers cheap scares. Things take a strange turn 20-minutes in when the story focuses on a group of "elite" students, who go to school during the weekend to take part in some uber-testing. Unbeknownst to them, the testing will be a series of puzzles shown to them via a television screen in the classroom that (if unanswered within certain time) will cause the death of a student. Sound familiar?

Yes, the movie takes a Saw-ish turn as we witness one student after the other somehow get kidnapped and put in front of a camera with some new death-device. These smarty-pants students must figure out the next math or English puzzle before time's up. Just when you think the movie has settled on a certain sub-genre, out of nowhere, it becomes a slasher. Someone close to the students is offing them one by one, but who could it be? Sadly, I was able to guess who the knife-wielding foe was before it was actually shown, leaving the final reveal a bit underwhelming, especially when it came to the roll-your-eyes twist ending.

Aside from the identity crises, the movie was fairly decent. The kills were bloody, and the premise was interesting, but there were times when I felt certain scenes dragged on a bit too long. Funny-enough, the running time is actually 30-minutes shorter than the standard South Korean flick, which proves even more that the script needed work.

OVERALL

The film starts off as a ghost flick, which turns into a semi-torture feature and ends up as a standard who-done-it slasher. It clearly suffers from an identity crises, but still kept me entertained from the start. Check this if you're a fan of South Korean horror, otherwise, skip it.

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frightie

Posted 366 days ago

I didn't have to assume anything since I saw it and I can say that it's not that great, but it's not that bad either.

Mitsuko

Posted 374 days ago

I don't understand all of the bad reviews on this movie. It's better than ninety percent of American horror movies. The plot was interesting and it kept me guessing as to who was killing the students. Everyone automatically assumes it's bad because it's a "horror movie". They never get good ratings.

frightie

Posted 451 days ago

Under Country it clearly states South Korea.

joanna young

Posted 451 days ago

this is a really stupid chinese horror movie

joanna young

Posted 451 days ago

this is a really stupid chinese horror movie

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