The greatest movie ever!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blistering performances.

I'm afraid that I didn't like this movie very much. Apart from a few saving graces, it's nothing to write home about. J-horror has boomed for the last five-six years but the films themselves have on more than one account been repetitive and carbon copies of a previous success. This is one of them.Basically this is a supernatural slasher movie. The beginning is promising with chilling scenes from a morgue where a dead girl has her eyes graphically sewn together, but soon after opens them. However, after that, it's quickly downhill for this flick.To be kind I will start with the things I like about "Gawi". On the plus side, the visuals are gaudy and the movie looks great for it's type. For those who like their horror movies gory there are a few nicely executed (no pun intended) murder scenes. We also get a few good suspense sequences/set-pieces.However, there are quite a few drawbacks also...First of all, and my major complaint about this movie, is that the plot skips and jumps forwards and backwards in time with an alarming intensity. Usually that's not a problem for me, but here, where the students look exactly the same no matter what age they are, I was confused on more than one occasion.The performances are okay I guess (a little hard to tell when you don't know the language), but seem a little stiff. And for a horror movie, I don't think it was scary enough. For a while I was quite bored actually.Being a fan of giallo movies, I was expecting quite a lot from "Nightmare", but unfortunately I was quite disappointed.

I was just reading all the reviews claiming this movie to be just a Korean version of a Hollywood slasher movie, but I found that there was something to it that I Know What You Did Last Summer just couldn't capture. It's true that this movie is nothing particularly original plot-wise, but there is definitely something in the idea of blending Hollywood slashers with Asian ghost movies that works.The result is a slasher with more gore than Hollywood has the 'guts' to do these days (sorry), which is always a good thing, as well as a Sadako-like character that adds a much creepier edge to the film than a guy wearing a scream mask. Add some very effective directing and acting (with the exception of one certain 'lawyer') and you have a film that's definitely worth watching.

A small circle of close friends is disrupted by a new presence, a withdrawn and somewhat shy girl named Eun-ju. The kindly Hye-jin takes Eun-ju under her wing and introduces her to everyone, unaware that she has met Eun-ju before...or has she? Eun-ju wins the affections of the handsome baseball player and incurs the wrath of the jealous Sun-ae. At a casual gathering one night, Sun-ae reveals that Eun-ju is actually Kyungh-ah, a little girl from the small village where she and Hye-jin grew up. Kyungh-ah was suspected of being possessed by demons and was said to have caused the death of several people, including Hye-jin's father. Eun-ju commits suicide that night by throwing herself from a roof top...but a few years later, her friends start seeing her dark ghost following them around and staring at them menacingly. Soon, the friends are dying, but is it really the ghost of Eun-ju back for vengeance? Or is it the seriously disturbed Sun-ae who has just "run away" from an American mental institution? Or could it be the young ambitious lawyer who has everything to lose? What secret are the friends hiding about Eun-ju's death?This film is not as slick and sharp as "Phone" but it's not bad either. Fans of the movie "Ghost Story" may appreciate this Asian take on the tale, as "Nightmare" has essentially the same plot. There are some great visuals here, particularly with the ghost of Eun-ju, and the performances are all very good. There's even a little gore here for splatter fans. The movie may move a little slowly for people who prefer their horror fast, bloody and constantly scary, but it has an interesting story to tell and will be appreciated by fans of "Ringu" "Ju-On" and the aforementioned "Phone."

The story premise isn't new: three years after a group of college friends drive a girl with Sadako-like powers to kill herself, they all start dying violent deaths. What's unclear until the final act is whether the spirit of the deceased girl has come back to wreak her revenge, or whether one of the group has cracked up and is committing the murders themselves.Fans of Korean cinema may remember lead actress Gyu-ri Kim as the Jessica Alba lookalike in "Whispering Corridors" (aka Yeogo Goedam) and she turns in another fantastic performance here. All of the cast members do, in fact - with Ji-won Ha as the Sadako-like girl mentioned above particularly impressive in the flashback scenes. Director/Writer Byeong-ki Ahn, who went on to direct "Phone" in 2002, shows a competent hand at direction with a few excellent set pieces and some genuinely spine-tingling suspense. If you manage to avoid jumping at least three times during this film, you're a braver soul than I!NIGHTMARE's shortcomings come in the plot department, with a few plot holes and convoluted story strands making it hard to follow at times. You're also not sure whether it's a slasher pic or a ghost story - but that's intentional, I suppose! Watch out for the final twist at the very end - it completely turns the rest of the film on its head - which, although out of the blue, at least leaves the viewer in no doubt as to what's happened.Had this been a little easier to follow throughout, NIGHTMARE would be getting my highest recommendation of 5 stars. As it is, though, fans of Asian horror shouldn't be disappointed and - although it's no RINGU or THE EYE - there's plenty to keep the average horror fan entertained. ***.5 / *****