A compilation of short films directed by five of the most acclaimed directors of the genre in South Korea adapted from a Korean TV show.
The Good Stor(ies): Ding Dong Challenge-Desperate to achieve stardom, a group of schoolgirls notice a particular viral video challenge to help them accomplish their goals of winning a K-Pop competition. When they discover that there's a dark side to taking on the challenge, they must figure out a way to stop it before it consumes them. There's quite a lot to like with this segment. The central setup here, involving the girls finding the cryptic video and the urban legend that spawns from watching it, is a fantastic setup that works with the usual assortment of storylines in the genre. Working with the idea of unwittingly enacting a curse after the video plays where the group learns the true origins about the original uploader, it comes together quite well, offering up some chilling imagery with the freakiness of the original video with the dance being performed in a creepy location. The ending resolution is a bit rushed and doesn't have the impact it could've but there's still a lot to like here.
Four-Legged Beast-Faced with declining grades, a student becomes desperate to find whatever means she can so that she can accomplish her dream of attending med school to escape her horrible home life. Finding a possible means of doing so with a ghostly encounter, she soon comes to find the deadly aftereffects of the situation. This was a pretty intriguing if somewhat underwhelming segment. The wholesale setup of her home life given a strong setup to understand the importance of her wanting the grades to continue schooling to get away from that lifestyle but not having the grades to do so is a fine step to get started. The gruesome antics that come about once this has happened offers up the kind of startlingly obvious if no less gruesome outcome that this setup seems gears towards which is the main problem as the setup established can only end one way due to how it's brought up involving how the ghostly spirit can help her so there's little suspense in what's going on, but is otherwise still rather fun.
Resident-Only Fitness Center-Moving into a new building, a young man finds one of the key selling points is an exclusive gym which has a slew of special terms and conditions. The more he stays there, the more he comes to believe that ghosts live in the center and are targeting the residents who use it and break the rules. Overall, there's a lot to like here. The setup of the gym being the hotspot for all the activity to take place makes for a unique location, helped even more by the impressive lighting that takes place in the location. Accompanied by an eerie red light in the blackness surrounding it, the scenes of the ghostly attacks using the fitness machines are generally impressive enough making great use of these features to produce some solid sequences. There's some attempted comedy in how the owners know what's going on but aren't willing to let anyone know why there's a ghost haunting the facility which doesn't really work, and it seems to end more as a result of time-limit constraints than a natural storyline build-up, but these aren't too damaging.
Gluttony-After a controversial video, a famous mukbang streamer decides to go on a stream with a friend of hers to help clear her name following the scandal. When the incident proves even more scandalous, a second chance stream between the two proves to be even more deadly than they imagined. This segment is more weird than anything but still comes off enjoyable enough. The main idea of a rivalry in the mukbang community and the type of competitive nature that emerges between the two makes for an intriguing start that's given a genuinely immersive build-up watching the competitive streams going on detailing the past history that paints each one as unsympathetic at different occasions. The actual competitive bout between them is fun to watch and turns into an intriguing concept but the problem is that there's no stake in the outcome. Competitive eating with no stakes doesn't inspire any chills at all which makes everything feel somewhat bland and lackluster with no purpose beyond watching the two of them settle an argument so there's very little that drags the viewer into this one.
The Bad Stor(ies): Jackpot-Forced to stay at a rundown motel, a depressed man tries to remain under the radar of the sleazy owner who wants the amount of money he won at a local casino. When he realizes that there might be a more sinister force at work within the motel, he's forced to find a way out of the situation alive. There wasn't a lot to this segment. The central setup involving the nature of human greed in how the struggle for the money drives both participants throughout here is all quite well-handled here. Since it leads to some thrilling moments involving a fight in the motel to acquire the money and the hallucinations involving the different figures stuck in the motel who are previous victims of the criminal group operating it, this all works quite well. There's just no explanation for anything as it's just dropped on us with no context or build-up so it never has the thrills it should've bringing it down somewhat.
Rehabilitation-After being injured in a rescue operation, a worker awakes from the situation trapped in a secret and mysterious room where she's unable to get free. While plagued by strange dreams and unsympathetic hosts, she tries to come to grips with what's really going on in the facility. This segment really could've been something but it suffers the most from its time constraints really undoing it the most. Faced with an elaborate, convoluted scenario involving the main girl learning that she's been injured in an accident and suffering potential brain damage which sent her to this location where she must be rehabilitated under a time limit, this setup is incredibly rushed in a short format such as this. It could've used much more time to get its storyline setup and most of its questions answered as there's quite a bit that requires time to set them up properly and answer them as instead things just happen without much rhyme or reason. The visuals are impressive and the concept itself will work quite nicely, but this segment really could've used a longer treatment to work properly.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.
