Death Bell (2008)

Please don't spend money on this.

Absolutely amazing

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I watched this movie on a whim without knowing anything about it beforehand, and I was pleasantly surprised at how gory, disturbing and downright entertaining the movie ended up being. The film follows a similar set up to many of the recent Japanese/Korean high school films; Students are locked in a school and picked off one by one by an unseen force. This time, however, the force is asking the brightest and most intelligent students to solve questions in order to save the lives of their peers. It's a great set-up that flows nicely between each act, with some great practical effects and some disturbing and downright horrifying scenes involving the teens. The acting was great all around, save for a few of the students that seemed to not have much experience or didn't take their roles too seriously. And while the movie seemed to get a bit confusing towards the final act, it all came together nicely in a twist that was not only unexpected, but very well executed. My only gripe with this film was that it could have been a bit more graphic with its depiction of death. I wanted to see each person as they were being killed, if only to increase the tension and disturbing element of an already pretty effective set-up. Overall, one of the better South Korean horror films I have seen, and definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys seeing annoying High School kids get their just deserts. A success, as far as I'm concerned.

I have just started looking into Korean horror films and I really enjoyed this one. It even had a good twist at the end which I did not expect at all. It was very well done in my opinion. The atmosphere was enjoyable as well and the acting wasn't too bad either unlike some foreign films I have watched. I would most certainly refer it to a friend or anyone who enjoys a good horror film. I have always been a horror film fanatic and find this to be one to add to my collection if the time calls for it. The actors and actresses were all new to me so gives me a few new faces to look forward to seeing in future Korean films and hope the director don't stop making them. I will definitely suggest everyone give it a watch.

A group of students at an elite school find that the series of mysterious disappearances are the result of a vengeful ghost intent on playing murderous games with the faculty as retribution for their behavior towards her and must race to solve the clues to stop the games from getting out of hand.A pretty confusing entry overall, as there was some parts to this one that was really enjoyable and some parts that were really infuriating. From the atmosphere of the school and the sense of everyone being targeted, the sense of panic as the games started and how to deal with them, it's really good and of course, once the games start this one is just an absolute blast as they finally make people being placed in traps scary for once since it connects them with a series of questions to be solved in order to free them, their failure resulting in graphic deaths which are really fun and bloody. The part that's really hard to get around is the fact that the ghost isn't really all that active in the story and it's more about the solving of the questions rather than dealing with a ghost running around kidnapping and killing people, making its involvement more like an afterthought rather than the main focus, which is a shame since it's got a couple really good, creepy moments that are really enjoyable, but it's confusing storyline arch and a rather inane ability to announce on-screen someone's death we have just witnessed seconds earlier knock it down somewhat.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language

Seeing how this movie did so well in Korean box office, I thought it would be pretty good. It's not really a horror flick, but sort of works like the "Saw" movies except not the victims but the students that still hasn't been kidnapped yet has to solve the puzzles in order to save there classmate. My guess is that there wasn't many Korean horror movies released during that year, and since Asians tends to crave horror flicks it did so well. Although the premise is pretty well done, none of the characters seem to stand out much and you just don't care who lives and who dies. None of them were believable and the character decisions don't make sense sometimes, there just isn't any logic. Plus everything about this movie seems to be rushed, especially the ending, the twist also wasn't that shocking or original. But what annoyed me the most was the cliché, it's safe to be in one area but a person can take it anymore or goes off to investigate when the person they leave behind is the one that really needs help, which tends to get annoying since it gets used way too much in this. Although I ain't really looking forward to the sequel to this, I hope it's better than this although sequels tend to suck.5.3/10