‘The Whispering‘ is a South Korean horror film that follows the conventional storyline often used in this genre. The story follows a group of six high school students who are preparing for their college interviews and embark on a trip during the final summer of their youth. However, instead of reaching their planned destination, they ended up in an abandoned amusement park where the owner had murdered his daughter and wife to attract visitors to his park. In the park is a cave where whisperings can be heard from…
‘The Whispering‘ had the potential to be a great movie but somehow failed to develop the plot and/or build the characters. The lack of plot development is a little disappointing because a good movie—no matter the genre—must have an interesting premise and a good story progression. The story between Eun-ha (So Joo-yeon) and her friend that passed away is definitely something that should have been developed more. Although they tried to give it a vague explanation towards the end, I still felt underwhelmed by it, which made the final scene less impactful. The jump scares were also overused and rapidly became very predictable. Some of them even managed to make me laugh, which shouldn’t be happening while watching this type of film. In my opinion, the surprise factor in a scary movie should never be predictable; otherwise, the movie ends up lacking something. Nevertheless, Eun-ha and Min-woo‘s (Kim Min-kyu) developing relationship was a very interesting and intriguing subplot. The horror atmosphere was also very well delivered—a dark cave without any sound except for the characters’ talking and the echoing whisperings.
I also enjoyed a couple of other aspects of the film. First is the acting, which was performed at a great level. The dark and soundless cave put the characters in the spotlight, helping me focus on the actors and concentrate on their acting. Second, the CGI was done perfectly.
So Joo-yeon, as well as Kim Min-kyu, is one of the new faces among the actors and actresses in this movie. She plays the main character of this horror movie, which—in my opinion—was perfectly sold by her flawless performance. Kim Min-kyu also did an outstanding job, acting very naturally in his scenes in the movie. Kim Tae-min—a former ‘Produce 101‘ trainee—didn’t have a lot of screentime, but he clearly delivered. He seemed comfortable in front of the camera as he played the role of Dong-il.
‘The Whispering‘ is definitely not the horror movie that I expected it to be. It possessed all the tools needed to reach its maximum potential but failed to connect them in the way they should have been. Although I cannot say for sure whether I enjoyed it or not, this is still a movie that I would recommend to people that enjoy this genre, as it has its moments and is watchable for the most part.
