This review may contain spoilers
Disappointing and unnecessarily hard to understand.
This movie is basically just a thriller, not horror or even a mystery. You need to pay really close attention to what the characters say, otherwise you'll have no idea what's going on.
1. The movie only explains the reason the main character is scared of water one time. If you miss it, you'll probably never find out why.
2. The senior who shows up to help her only explains who he is about five minutes into the movie. So once again, if you weren't paying attention, you won't know who he is or why he's there until the last 15 minutes.
3. When it's revealed that the senior is actually dead, the main character decides to go into the forest by herself instead of telling her friends what's going on (and remember, she's terrified of water and doesn't even know the area). Like... what????
4. And then there's the old lady. Nobody thinks about her at any point after her first appearance. Not even the paranormal YouTuber, who somehow knows all about rituals and spiritual stuff, but when it comes to the stone monument, she suddenly has no clue about it. Very convenient for the plot.
5. The movie has several moments that are perfectly set up for a jump scare, but it completely fumbles every single one of them. There's a scene where they discover the senior is dead, and the camera zooms in on the protagonist while everything behind her is completely dark, only for half a face to appear and that's it. Then there's another scene where several heads emerge from the water and the manager (the older brother) gets startled, and when the specter finally appears, it doesn't make a sound. So the scare falls completely flat. Another time, the senior is placing stones on the monument, and when he turns around, he transforms into the specter and starts chasing them. Once again, it's a silent jump scare with no scream, no loud noise, nothing. And that's basically what happens every time the movie sets up a scare—they ruin it horribly.
6. Why does the water specter even exist? Well, once again, if you weren't paying attention, you'll never know, because it's only mentioned once. The pond was built on top of a cemetery. One of the staff members says this at one point and that's pretty much the only explanation you get. As for the old lady's daughter, you're basically left to figure it out yourself. All we know is that she died in the pond and now lures people into building those stone monuments.
7. And finally, it feels like the director just couldn't be bothered. There are basically no flashbacks to explain anything. We never see how the protagonist almost drowned. We don't know much about her relationship with the guy who comes looking for her. We learn almost nothing about the old lady's daughter or how the old lady ended up performing sacrifices. We never find out how the senior or his wife died either.
On top of that, the movie is completely inconsistent about how technology works. Sometimes phones and other devices work just fine, other times they don't. For example, we see the specter cut off phone calls at one point. If that's the case, then why doesn't it interrupt the call where the protagonist learns that the senior died in a hospital? The answer is simple: because the plot needed that information to get through. It's convenient for the movie, so it happens.
8. The ending is hard to understand for a lot of reasons, mainly because the ghost creates illusions, so you never really know if what you're seeing is real or not. Keeping that in mind, you can pretty much come up with whatever ending you want since everything could just be an illusion. For anyone who didn't get the ending, Gi Tae doesn't actually manage to save the main character when she drowns trying to grab the paddle. The ghost makes him think he saved her, then traps him in an illusion where they're back at work. It takes her appearance and tricks him into walking toward the water, which is what we see at the end. The whole movie was basically an illusion, including all the horror and fear.
1. The movie only explains the reason the main character is scared of water one time. If you miss it, you'll probably never find out why.
2. The senior who shows up to help her only explains who he is about five minutes into the movie. So once again, if you weren't paying attention, you won't know who he is or why he's there until the last 15 minutes.
3. When it's revealed that the senior is actually dead, the main character decides to go into the forest by herself instead of telling her friends what's going on (and remember, she's terrified of water and doesn't even know the area). Like... what????
4. And then there's the old lady. Nobody thinks about her at any point after her first appearance. Not even the paranormal YouTuber, who somehow knows all about rituals and spiritual stuff, but when it comes to the stone monument, she suddenly has no clue about it. Very convenient for the plot.
5. The movie has several moments that are perfectly set up for a jump scare, but it completely fumbles every single one of them. There's a scene where they discover the senior is dead, and the camera zooms in on the protagonist while everything behind her is completely dark, only for half a face to appear and that's it. Then there's another scene where several heads emerge from the water and the manager (the older brother) gets startled, and when the specter finally appears, it doesn't make a sound. So the scare falls completely flat. Another time, the senior is placing stones on the monument, and when he turns around, he transforms into the specter and starts chasing them. Once again, it's a silent jump scare with no scream, no loud noise, nothing. And that's basically what happens every time the movie sets up a scare—they ruin it horribly.
6. Why does the water specter even exist? Well, once again, if you weren't paying attention, you'll never know, because it's only mentioned once. The pond was built on top of a cemetery. One of the staff members says this at one point and that's pretty much the only explanation you get. As for the old lady's daughter, you're basically left to figure it out yourself. All we know is that she died in the pond and now lures people into building those stone monuments.
7. And finally, it feels like the director just couldn't be bothered. There are basically no flashbacks to explain anything. We never see how the protagonist almost drowned. We don't know much about her relationship with the guy who comes looking for her. We learn almost nothing about the old lady's daughter or how the old lady ended up performing sacrifices. We never find out how the senior or his wife died either.
On top of that, the movie is completely inconsistent about how technology works. Sometimes phones and other devices work just fine, other times they don't. For example, we see the specter cut off phone calls at one point. If that's the case, then why doesn't it interrupt the call where the protagonist learns that the senior died in a hospital? The answer is simple: because the plot needed that information to get through. It's convenient for the movie, so it happens.
8. The ending is hard to understand for a lot of reasons, mainly because the ghost creates illusions, so you never really know if what you're seeing is real or not. Keeping that in mind, you can pretty much come up with whatever ending you want since everything could just be an illusion. For anyone who didn't get the ending, Gi Tae doesn't actually manage to save the main character when she drowns trying to grab the paddle. The ghost makes him think he saved her, then traps him in an illusion where they're back at work. It takes her appearance and tricks him into walking toward the water, which is what we see at the end. The whole movie was basically an illusion, including all the horror and fear.
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