|
 t
probably comes as no surprise to regular readers of the site that "Red
Eye", the latest horror film out of South Korea, makes almost no effort to
stride beyond the confines of its very limited genre tropes. Everything you
would expect from your daily dose of Asian horror films, in particular the Asian
ghost stories, are front and center, from the vengeful female ghost with long
black hair to the now must-have "cool shot" of a ghost appearing out
of an impossible place/location (in this case, a puddle of blood on the floor)
ala Sadako's dramatic exit from a TV in "Ringu".
As such, to call "Red Eye" derivative would be redundant, as by now
any person of reasonable intelligence has stopped waiting for the Asian
continent to break free from the bonds of the generic Asian horror film
conventions of its own making.
The Korean "Red Eye" concerns itself with
a certain midnight train that ferries passengers from Seoul to Yeosu,
and takes place on the night of the train's last run before
decommission. Our guide is train stewardess Mi-sun (Shin-yeong Jan), who
in the tradition of all leading ladies in Asian ghost films, moves as
slowly and as unnaturally as possible, and has the personality of what
can generously be called a blank slate. These familiar leading lady
qualities are common within the genre, as the blank slate element is
used by the filmmakers to bring the audience along on the ride. Less a
character than an avatar for the audience, the leading lady is almost
always in the dark on the movie's happenings, and as she "fills
up" with the film's storyline, so too does the audience.
We learn that Mi-sun has swapped places with a
co-worker to take the train's last shift, and that today is also her
birthday. It would seem like a poor night to transfer over any time of
the year, as the train in question has a reputation of being haunted,
and in fact it is carrying around parts left over from a terrible and
deadly train crash many years ago. Add to that the fact that tonight is
also the anniversary of the infamous train crash, and one gets the
feeling that the screenwriters have moved Heaven and Earth in order to
create all these "coincidences". Along for the ride with
Mi-sun is a disparate group of passengers, including some army guys, two
morbid siblings, two kleptomaniac runaway girls, four ghost researchers
(including one that can see ghosts, or so she claims), and a bickering
married couple.
What should quickly become apparent is that
"Red Eye" is one of those movies that just keep piling on the
twists, even though the "twists" are little more than bad
examples of Movie Coincidence run amok. Of the bigger whoppers, there is
Mi-sun's birthday, which just happens to coincide with the anniversary
of the train crash, which her dead father just happened to be the
conductor of. Also, Mi-sun's co-worker just happens to be the boyfriend
of the crashed train's stewardess, who seems to be haunting the halls of
the current train, nevermind that the boyfriend doesn't look nearly old
enough to have dated anyone when the crash took place 17 years ago. Not
surprisingly, practically every minor character in the film has some
relation to the train and the past.
Aside from its lack of attention toward some
semblance of credulity, "Red Eye" is actually not a bad horror
film, even if you could predict all the horrific elements, something you
really should be able to do if you've even seen just one Asian horror
film in your life. Even so, the film has some nice visuals, including
the use of darkness and green gels. The transformation of the train from
the two different eras are quite good, as well as some creative visual
trickery used to show the gradual merging of the two different trains.
It's mostly the fault of director Dong-bin Kim (who
also directed the Korean remake of "Ringu" called "Ring
Virus") that "Red Eye" isn't as scary as it should
have been. For the most part Kim fails to capitalize on the train
setting's claustrophobic confines, and aside from a couple of scenes
inside the train's cramp bathrooms, the film never really develops that
unnerving feeling of traveling between two cities on a mostly empty
train in the dead of night. If anything, Kim seems to keep returning to
the same tricks, as well as an over indulgence on the movie custom of
lights turning off when you most need them. This is one of those genre
clichés that gets old the first or second time a film uses them, which
is saying something because "Red Eye" uses this same gimmick
about a dozen times throughout the film.
Unfortunately
the light cliché is symptomatic of the film's overall lack of
imagination. For the uninitiated viewer, "Red Eye" does have
some minor bumps in the night to be entertained by, most of them taking
place as those familiar shrieking noises appear on the soundtrack, of
course. There are probably too many characters in the cast, and about
halfway through the audience will no doubt stop caring who these people
are, and just wait for the film to reveal who is a ghost and who isn't.
Not that you could tell, as although "Red Eye" telegraphs most
of its (attempted) scares and (supposed) twists from a mile away, the
script is simply too uninteresting for the audience to voluntarily pay
attention.
As another entry into the ever-growing list of Asian
horror films about vengeful female ghosts and a blank slate leading lady
going through the motions of discovering the past so she can resolve the
present and save the future (the basic template of many Asian ghost
stories since "Ringu"), "Red Eye" is ultimately a
middling effort. It's not overly horrible, but it's not really all that
good, either. If you've never seen an Asian horror film in your life, or
any of the recent spate of American remakes, then I suppose "Red
Eye" may be worth the price of a video rental. Then again,
considering the film's overall pedestrian qualities, waiting for the
free TV broadcast might be a better deal.
|
