After Dark: K-Horror
Over the last few decades, the haunted high-school hallways of the Whispering Corridors series (1998-2009, 2021-), the ghostly psychodrama of Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), the Carpenter-esque war-is-hell manœuvres of Kong Su-chang’s R-Point (2004), the Zola-adapting vampirism of Park Chan-wook’s Thirst (2009), the barrelling locomotive undead of Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016), the ambiguous smalltown devilry of Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing (2016), and the found-footage freakery of Jung Bum-shik’s Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) have all left their imprint on the international consciousness, while coming with a decidedly local flavour of fear.
Both in celebration of this “Horror Wave”, and also just because it has been a very good year for genre cinema in Korea, the LKFF is putting on a special strand devoted to contemporary Korean horror.
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LKFF 2022: Contorted
Thu 10 Nov, 6:30pm
Genesis Cinema
When Myung-hye (Seo Yeong-hee) moves into a remote, suspiciously cheap rental home with husband Hyun-min (Kim Min-jae) and children, her nightmares intensify and she repeatedly hears a strange noise coming from the locked shed. This is also heard by her adopted daughter Hee-woo (Kim Bomin), who has a special sensitivity to the other side. Adapted from Jeon Gun-woo’s novel The Contorted House, b...
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LKFF 2022: The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra + Cashbag
Thu 10 Nov, 8:50pm
Genesis Cinema
Screening together with Cashbag (2019, 25 min) With Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977), Possession (1981) and A Ghost Story (2017) as its nearest analogues, Park Syeyoung’s experimental fungal slasher tracks a mattress, and the spores growing on it, as they pass through the hands of different owners and users, including lovers at different stages of their relationships and a terminally...
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LKFF 2022: Seire
Fri 11 Nov, 9:00pm
Picturehouse Central
Seire (aka samchil-il) is the 21-day period of postpartum confinement for a newborn and its mother, during which special dietary measures are observed, saekki ropes are hung over the threshold, visits are restricted, and family members are supposed to avoid anything ill-omened. Recent father Jin Woo-jin (Seo Hyun-woo) ignores the superstitions of his wife Hae-mi (Sim Eun-woo) and breaks a taboo...
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LKFF 2022: Guimoon: The Lightless Door
Fri 11 Nov, 11:30pm
Rio Cinema
Pitched somewhere between Jung Bum-shik’s Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) and Jo Ba-reun’s The Grotesque Mansion (2021), Sim Deok-geun’s haunted building horror has shaman’s son Seo Do-jin (in 2002) and a trio of college students (in 1996) both entering an abandoned and cursed community centre where many murders and suicides have occurred, and both repeatedly crossing each other’s paths despite ...
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