Whispering Corridors
(Tartan Asia Extreme Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(1998)
review by Don't Feed the Dead

Sometimes I find it very difficult to believe the hype generated by foreign films because so often they just end up boring the hell out of me. A sizeable list headed up by notables such as Ringu and a Tale of 2 Sisters now has a new addition - Whispering Corridors. I know Tartan's intention was to deliver one of the founding fathers of breakthrough Asian horror to the American market, but let's face it, this flick was a snoozefest highlighted by a couple of violent scenes.

At an all girls school in Korea at teacher is found dead and the police cannot determine if it was a suicide or if foul play was involved. Rumors begin circulating amongst the students that the teacher was murdered by a vengeful spirit that wanders the corridors of the school, but the faculty want to cover the incident up as best as possible. One student, Ji-Oh, who inadvertently found the deceased teacher's body, jokingly holds a seance with another student to try and conjure up the spirits within the school's walls. What the students don't realize is that there are in fact ghosts wandering the school's halls and they have every intention to carry out a ritual of their own that takes place every 3 years.

Eun-Young, a graduate of the school and newest addition to the faculty begins to take notice of the strange occurances at the school. After receiving a frightening call from the deceased teacher on the night of the incident detailing the appearance of Eun-Young's dead best friend, she also begins to have flashbacks of her friend's suicide which took place within the school's walls. Do we see where this is going yet? Indeed, Eun-Young's former best friend is out for vengeance and redemption, but the story unfolds in an extremely drawn out and uneventful fashion.

The eventual downfall of certain Asian horrors, such as Whispering Corridors, is that the story takes way too long to tell. By the time the "plot twist" hits, the audience is either bored or confused by the events that fill between points A and B. For Whispering Corridors, it wasn't so much the confusion as that by the time people started dying and ghosts began appearing, you just didn't care anymore. The story would have been more engrossing if it were told in a more rapid fashion and the audience was involved a bit more in the storyline. Filling the body of a film with vague flashbacks and teenage hijinx just won't catch my attention if the focus is supposed to be on a vengeful spirit.

A bit saddening are the extras that Tartan offers up on the Whispering disc. In fact, it may as well be considered "mute", as the only other options besides the film are trailers for other Tartan films and a photo gallery of the feature. Quite surprising when one considers that the film is nearly 7 years old and it was boasted as being the film that started the whole Asian horror import craze.

Unfortunately, the Whispering Corridors experience wasn't a very potent one, and I do regret giving the film such a low mark because it wasn't made THAT poorly. However, if the movie can't hold an audience's attention long enough to make the storyline interesting, well then that just plain sucks. Now, Whispering Corridors will have a place on the shelf next to a Tale of 2 Sisters, where the duo can engage in a long slumber, much like I did during their respective viewings.