Asian horror movies love to set ghost stories in all-girl schools, since that gives the movie lots of eye candy for gore junkies who also like to ogle hot teens in school uniforms. Unusually, the setting was more sharply drawn than is typical, with the harsh discipline, regimentation and repression of individuality so common throughout the educational world of the Far East playing a major functional and contextual role in the film. The high school setting provided a world of gossip, frustration, rivalry and threat in which the presence of ghosts was simply one other unpleasant aspect. The characters were drawn with an equally sharp pen, giving the movie more dramatic depth and impact than one usually sees as well. Normally, once the undead start knocking off the living in movies of this type, the horror is blunted by the fact that weak, uninteresting characters are being slaughtered, so who really cares? Here, good use of the setting and characterization made me interested in the goings on. Watchable and recommended.

The first part of the very loosely bound "Yeogo goedam" series that tell stories about supernatural events happening in Korean girl schools is the best one I have seen so far and easily beats the second and third part.This movie mixes everything a good psychological suspense movie needs. The opening scene is very dark and somewhat confusing. The atmosphere of the movie is creepy and addicting. The playing of the young Korean actresses is very well done and offers a multitude of intriguing characters. From time to time, there some supernatural events and surprises that take place but nothing that seems to be too unreal or out of vogue. Until the end you keep on guessing who is behind all the tragic events that take place throughout the movie and many scenarios are possible. After that, the film lets you on a mysterious and dark note and finishes the dark flick in a creepy way.The tension and atmosphere is always quite high in this movie. There are not many shocking effects or gore scenes but a dark atmosphere that equals and even overpowers the usual flicks of the same genre. The great acting and a few interesting revelations keep the tension high and develop the different characters.The only negative thing might be that the idea of such a movie is not quite new and that the final revelations could have been even more developed and surprising and I was expecting something more spectacular. But those are only two rather subjective points and though this movie is nothing pretty outstanding, it's at least worth eight points and I completely understand why the general idea of this first flick lead to a total of now four sequels. The movie is really entertaining and far better than the American high school horror movies. You don't have to watch the sequels that are less impressive, but this first movie should be on your list if you like Asian cinema or high school suspense movies.

My summary can be found at http://www.docticktock.com. In summary this movie is average at best. This movie takes the average Asian horror film plot and does nothing with it. Whispering Corridors is neither scary, thrilling, or even entertaining. The best part of this movie is its social commentary. Korea has long struggled with student -teacher relationships which are often cold and sometimes even brutally violent and oppressive. W.C. does address this in a very superficial way (ie it just acknowledges that it is happening) and never gets into why or how. But it shouldn't. This is a horror movie, but since they didn't decide to pursue the horror aspect they could have at least developed the naturally interesting thread of the story line.

**Some spoilers in this comment**South Korean movie "Whispering Corridors" is a horror movie which is not scary enough. Unlike "Phone" from the same country, the screenwriters of this movie did not succeed in maintaining the terrifying suspense throughout the movie. After the death of the sadistic female teacher and brutal male teacher "Mad Dog" Oh, the movie dragged on and on until its rather disappointing climax. At the climax an average-looking school girl apparition, who was in no way scary, appeared and explained the motivation behind the haunting. Convinced by the sincerity of her former friend Miss Hur, she goes back to the netherworld. This was not even one-tenth as scary as the climax of "Phone" where the apparition of Jin-hee, a murder victim, emerges from a wall and stares at her victim with her horrifyingly angry eyes. Jin-hee was a totally unforgiving monster. She has an uncompromising grudge, which even an average moviegoer can feel from the screen. How can the average-looking female ghost in "Whispering Corridors" measure up to Jin-hee of "Phone?" The only matter of note in this movie was the incredible brutality of the Korean teachers. The teachers slap, punch, whip and sexually harass the students, but the students take it with obedient "Yes, sir." These teachers make some U.S. Marine Corps drill instructors look like cream puffs. If these teachers acted like this in the U.S., they would have been thrown in jail.According to my Korean acquaintance, teachers are allowed to use corporal punishment in South Korea. He also told me that the root cause of the brutality of Korean schoolteachers is the generations-old Confucian ideology. Followers of Confucian ideology believe that teachers can do no wrong and give teachers absolute authority over his or her students. And many modern Koreans pride themselves as being obedient followers of classic Confucianism. Just as the adage "Absolute authority absolutely corrupts." states, the absolute authority given to Korean schoolteachers make many of them to act any way they want. Many resort to intolerable violence while some resort to sexual harassment. (Of course, I strong believe that there are many kind, respectable Korean schoolteachers like Miss Hur in this movie.)In conclusion, "Whispering Corridors" is just an OK movie. It should be obvious to any competent movie fan that "Phone" from the same country is a much better crafted horror movie.