***SPOILERS*** Far too complicated with a completely out of the blue and off the wall ending in effect spoiled, what was up until then, the movies heart thumping final and thus makes Nightmare- or Gawi as its called in Korean-a far less effective horror/thriller then it should have been.The film has to do with this Korean collage student Seon-Ae who was, its obvious from her conduct in the movie, under psychiatric treatment in the USA as an exchange student for the last two years. Coming back home to Seoul South Korea Seon-Ae stays at her friend's pad fellow student Hye-Jin. That's until she can get her very mixed up head back together again. For some strange reason Seon-Ae feels that she's being haunted by the ghost of Kyung-Ah who was killed, or committed suicide, two years ago. It was not long after that tragic event that she herself suffered a paralyzing nervous breakdown.The down to earth and straight as an arrow Hye-Jin at first dismisses Seon-Ae ridicules story about being haunted by Kyung-Ah's ghost as just one of her psychiatric prescribed drug induced hallucinations. It's not until later when members of this student study group "A Few Good Men", as well as women, that Hye-Jin is a member of start getting murdered by someone who's got a vendetta against them that she changes her mind. It's the members of this student group who in fact were with Kyung-Ah the very last day of her life! That's when she either fell jumped or was pushed off the "A Few Good Men" studio's building headquarter's roof falling some ten stories to her death below!There's a number of really gut wrenching scenes of members of "A Few Good Men" getting it from the unknown and unseen killer who were made to believe is the late Kyung-Ah's Ghost. ****SPOILER ALERT***The killer in fact is far more alive then were made to believe and is using Kyung-Ah's perceived evil and vindictive spirit to terrorize those who may have an inkling to his, or her, identity. All this murder and mayhem goes back two years to the night of Kyung-Ah untimely death that in fact was in no way as cut and dry we were lead to believe. It's the killers intention to murder all of the witnesses to Kyung-Ah's death that he himself, when he freaked out on camera over a harmless kitty cat, was mostly responsible for. What turned out to be the killers ultimate demise was one of his victims video nut Se-Hun filming the entire gruesome and blood curdling event. And there's also another one of his murder victims the washed out, after suffering a broken leg, baseball player Hyng-Jun getting a hold of the incriminating video tape and blackmailing him with it!By the time the, who was normal up until then, crazed homicidal maniac got his hands on the video tape the cat, who in the video was as black as "Midnight", was already out of the bag. Having murdered some half dozen people already the Killer was now determined to murder two more in order for him to finalize what he thinks is going to be his "Perfect Crime"! The killers two targeted victims are what turns out to be the only persons left alive who can expose him as well as the reason for his murderous rampage: Hye-Jin & Seon-Ae!

We see a body of dead girl in a morgue with the coroner trying to close the eyes of the girl, but whatever he tries they won't stay open. After this we move into the future and we follow a group of former school friends who hide a terrible secret, but suddenly they start getting picked off one by one in many grisly ways. Through flashbacks we learn of this awful suicide of a shy girl who was trying to be one of the group, but she was shut out by them because they dug up her past and found out some weird occurrences. So, is she back from the grave seeking revenge? Oh what a great and always spooky story! Well, that's what I hoping I could say. And 'hoping' was as good as it got. This is an forgettable, so-so supernatural horror flick that I actually watched before, but I went in thinking it was my first viewing. So to my surprise it hit me when I started picking up on certain things, but like I said it's quite a forgettable mix that it felt like a first viewing again. "Nightmare' is just another type of it's field that adds a 'few' changes to the gruel. Oh, please give me something that's a bit more fresh. It doesn't have to be entirely original, but this is one formulaic and at times quite tired J-horror flick. Even though it strings along the usual ghost story involving you guessed right… an evil looking, vengeful chick spirit.But in spite of my negativity of it being the same old, same old story and jolts. This one kind of entertains when its being grisly and popping in some creepy visuals. The deaths are vividly displayed with bite and some originality. While, the gloomy atmosphere alienates the audience with it's murky lighting. The first scene involving the spirit terrorising one of the girls is one blood-curdling experience, but really when it's not trying to shock you. I found it rather coma inducing and I thought about getting some shut-eye. That might be harsh, but it just didn't go anywhere of any interest between those shock moments. You could say that because the supposed mystery is really not much of one, the unsure story is just simply flat and the characters are a self-centred bunch that you don't really care what happens to them. The disjointed story should have focused more on the spirit than that of these bland characters who have one unconvincing group relationship. It just overplayed its cards by becoming overly muddled and taking too long to get going that when it comes to the climax it's just plain ludicrous. The film's haunting ending is a high point, though.The film looks fine, although it could have done without the snazzy, quick fire editing and the music score was a bit overbearing in playing up the mood. The performances tread a fine line, but Gyu-ri Kim is strong in the lead role.It's nothing new and it shamelessly steals ideas, but if you can look past that it delivers some nasty thrills. Although, I found the handling of it rather lethargic, despite the odd effective chills. A standard effort all round I guess, but still it's equally missable.

Buying this movie was a blind buy...I knew a little about the flick but something about the film had me interested in it so I bought. I hoped it would be as good as the other Asian horror flicks I have been watching lately and boy...was this film great. I really liked this film a lot, I loved the way it was directed, I loved the original take on a played out concept and I loved the acting. Great acting all around except for some ham acting from a certain actor towards the end. Only a true talented director with a vision can take elements from a genre that your all too familiar with and totally blows your head with it. Korean director Byeong-Ki Ahn really came through with talent and true insight in a genre that's so easily ripped off...he shows new takes on slasher moments and gives the film a real edge that most post scream movies don't have. Now let's start off with the most important...the script. I really liked the script for this film. It was smart,original in it's take of the movie's plot and pretty great story telling. Right from the get go this film had me watching and I was never bored. I love how the film started one way then slowly started changing on me without me even noticing it. I loved how since this film is about that "J-horror" genre(but it's actually K-Horror because it's Korean) but slowly it becomes more complex and moves away from the J-horror movies we have all come to know. Smart lad this Byeong-Ki Ahn is...much talented. I loved the characters in this film. They were all wonderfully played by actors who looked young and had the chops to pull it off. And the girls,wow...I have never seen so many hot looking girls in one film. I mean,they were hot...I couldn't take my eyes off of them and they also knew how to act. Simply wonderful. I liked how this movie short of had that Scream type of vibe with the whole teen thing but I also liked how they didn't try to rip it off either. This movie is smarter than Scream I think, Scream was a fan boys fantasy...this film is just that...a film. They took something that everyone here in the states has ripped off to the point of death(Scream mainly) and did something smart by mixing it into the booming J-horror genre and making something totally cool and clever. I also liked how there were no "evil" people just misguided and human characters. The characters never did anything to make me go"oh I know why they did that...it was just so that the character to serve the story" In this movie it's the other way around...the characters are the story and the movie was about them and something they had done. No this isn't like the ripped off crap that was "I know what you did last summer"(which was ripped off from the flawed 80's flick "Prom Night". No, I know what you did last summer and Prom Night wish they could be as good as Nightmare. From the beginning we're never told what the characters did(something that Prom Night really messed up on by telling us too early and then trying to us care about those same characters who did something really bad) No, this movie allows us to know these people as characters and then they tell us what happened.Great show. Now for some of the beefs. The third act was kicking, I mean I loved it. Most other J-horror movies would have done the third act in the same way but this film doesn't and I loved them for that. But my only beef with that is the acting from the "bad guy" I mean come on...the dude spend most of the movie being calm and level headed and then at the end he goes all loco. Wow, how the hell that happen? Another beef is with the last pace of the film. First off let me say I loved fast pace, it really helped me get interested in this film and never allowed me to get bored. But at moments it seemed like it went a little to fast paced to the point where I didn't know what I was watching. I was left going"what? How that happen?" At times I found myself lost. But it's all good...the film had a few beefs but it still rocked hard. Now back to my favorite thing about the film...the directing. Man, Byeong-Ki Ahn kicked all kinds of tail with this bad boy. Man, I was really impressed with all the style and talent he showed without being all "look at me I'm so talented because I'm using all this style" No, homeboy handled his stuff good. He rocked the acting, he handled the drama, the unfolding story and the horror. Man,boy knows his stuff and brought so much to this cool flick. Great show.

This South Korean thriller can't claim much originality in its basic story. A group of young adults are linked by a guilty secret from their college days. They start being haunted by visions of someone who was killed accidentally several years before, and begin dying violently themselves. The idea dates back to at least 1980 (PROM NIGHT), and more recently formed the basis for I SAW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. But writer-director An Byung-ki, evidently familiar with Italian gialli, maintains interest by giving the plot a quite convoluted structure plus several bizarre twists and turns as the film progresses. The influence of Dario Argento is specially noticeable. Mr. An also invests the story with enough ambiguity that, until the last scene, we're not sure whether the vengeful ghost seen by the characters is for real or simply a projection of their guilt.The young cast generally furnish convincing and underplayed performances. Particularly noteworthy are Kim Kyu-ri as a psychology major and Ha Ji-won as the film's enigmatic nemesis. The picture's mood of unease is greatly enhanced by imaginative lighting, smoothly gliding camerawork, sharp editing, and a varied but never intrusive score. KAWEE successfully continues South Korea's recent emergence as a new force in the psychological horror film sub-genre.Westerners can catch this movie on VCD or DVD under the titles NIGHTMARE and HORROR GAME MOVIE. It's highly recommended.