Apateu

SUMMARY: A working woman in her 30s experiences a deathly incident which disturbs her and after a while, she starts noticing strange incidents happening in her opposite building. She starts spying and things go downhill.

I thought this movie give me scares since the visual effects are blue, grimmish and 2000s old school just like Ring series, but I WAS WRONG.

This film makes absolutely no sense. It was dull the entire time, and the plot is terrible. I would not suggest this film to anyone.

This movie talks about more suicides than actual story? Looking at the story, they could have done so much better but it went all over the place.

A video related with mystical scenery, with a lot of mysteries and unknowns, which it follows a lonely young career woman, lives in a high-rise apartment building in a Seoul suburb, and sometimes watches her neighbors through binoculars for amusement.

She does notice that the lights across the way flicker mysteriously at exactly 9:56pm every night-often accompanied by an apparent suicide.

These types of films are rare, at the same time very special and original from the content, soundtrack, cameraview and everything is realized in the right way, with a very confusing and mysterious theme and a perfect execution in end. 8/0 11/06/22.

Needless to say that given my fascination with horror movies and Asian cinema, then of course I sat down to watch the 2006 South Korean horror movie "Apeteu" (aka "APT.") as I had the opportunity to watch it in 2021.

Initially then the movie started out alright, but oddly enough then writers Byeong-ki Ahn, Pool Kang and Soyoung Lee quickly let the story spiral out of control and it turned to a somewhat befuddled mess of a storyline. Sure, towards the end, once the cause behind the supernatural events were made clear and brought into the light, then the movie was actually starting to get back on track, but by then it was just a little bit too late.

I wanted to like this movie, but it ultimately never managed to become more than a mediocre horror movie. And not one of the finest or more memorable moments in South Korean horror cinema. There are far better choices of horror movies from the South Korean cinema in comparison to "APT.".

Director Byeong-ki Ahn was settling on a somewhat safe formula to shape the movie by, and it made for only a generic result, that wasn't particularly scary.

Visually then there were some nice enough moments throughout the course of "APT.", though hardly anything noteworthy or memorable. Again, there are far better horror movies in the South Korean cinema.

The best thing about "APT." was the cast, because they definitely had managed to get together a good ensemble of actors and actresses for the movie. Most noteworthy was So-Young Ko (playing Se-Jin).

While I managed to sit through the entire movie, I can't claim to have been more than adequately entertained. As such, then my rating of "APT." lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Why this movie is being compared to "Ringu" is a mystery to me! The only element that can be compared is the woman with the long black hair that walks funny. Personally I think this movie is much more like "Ju-On: the Grudge". Does this mean that "APT" is not worth your time? Well, that depends. If you like these kind of horror movies than I would recommend this one. If you can't stand to see these long haired Asian chicks than you should not bother to see this movie. I think that "APT" does a good job in creating a creepy atmosphere and sometimes even scare you. The first 70 minutes are quite thrilling. Even the back story is compelling and touching. Only the last twenty minutes were predictable and a major letdown. Also it never gets clear what the connection is between the main character and the woman from the subway. (Although I know why they put it in. It is used as motivation to get the main character interested in the suicides happening in the apartment building across her own.) It is a real shame that they did not follow up on this part of the story since it's buildup was as scary as the main mystery. It could have provided more depth and it's solution could have made a much better ending. Some reviewers complain that this movie isn't original enough. And to some degree I can agree on that. But to be honest there aren't many horror movies out there that are truly original. Most themes are used over and over again. I think that as long as the movie is entertaining and scary enough, being original should not be an issue. "APT" is pretty creepy and scary and will entertain you as long as you can ignore the forced ending!

This movie is not the best by any means, nor does it take genre to the next step. Even worse, it uses plot and setting elements we already seen numerous times in other movies.

But.

All leading actors are doing good job. Film is moody, and scary at times. Not as much as you would like, but yet it is. On top of that, it takes some familiar plot elements but twists them in unexpected ways. Keyword "some", and yet it does. Some scenes In this movie are beautiful, and some are touching. Few of them you, probably, will remember for quite some time.

As movie in whole, APT. is a good watch for these who just want to watch another traditional Asian horror. It will not stay with you for long, and will not surprise much, but if you want more "Revenging ghost" experience, this movie will not disappoint - if you know, what to expect. And by now you certainly do = ) I give it subjective 7/10, and unbiased 6/10.