Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Nitzan Havoc When a horror freak such as myself sets out to watch yet another Asian horror film (especially one from the Ghost sub-genre), it always involves being a little prepared for a disappointment. For after The Grudge and The Ring (even the American remakes) what ghost could possibly scare us?Enter Phone, a pleasantly bone chilling surprise of unnerving terror. Starting off with clues hinting that it's going to be no more than another stalker/killer/slasher/cat-mouse-chase flick, Phone continues with a compellingly interesting story that has kept me curious and worried till the very end.It takes some time for the events to unfold and for a spectator to fully absorb and comprehend them, and many of the clues are off-throwing and deceiving, making the plot twists all the better. I've seen many Horror films of all sub-genres, so I'm not easily thrown off or surprised. I'm happy to say this film got the best of me in any way possible :)For a change, it's not the ghost that's the terrifying part (unlike the above mentioned The Grudge and The Ring). The brightly shining star of this feature is young actress Seo-woo Eun, who plays Yeong-ju. No make up, no digital editing and no visual effects - this kid's acting is in my opinion Oscar material. Her face expressions, her voice intonations, her body language - all are simply phenomenal! Watch out for this one, if the directors in Korea know their job, she's going to have an elaborate and impressive career.The twists weren't all that creepy, but well thought of and well presented. The story is original and compelling. One of the better films I've seen, highly recommended!

BA_Harrison I'm not the biggest fan of yūrei-based horror in general (although, strangely, I do seem to have collected rather a lot of them for someone not enamoured with the genre), and judging by it's first hour, Korean contribution Phone didn't look set to change my opinion; in fact, for much of its running time the film could be mistaken for being nothing more than a simple rip-off of Japanese hits such as Ringu, Ju-on and Dark Water, with many of the familiar ingredients in evidence, including a slow-burn approach, lots of rain, fleeting glimpses of creepy kids, and long black hair sprouting all over the place.As the film progresses, though, it thankfully forms its own identity (albeit one influenced by the work of Edgar Allen Poe), the story developing a decidedly more twisted approach, incorporating infidelity, betrayal, obsession and paedophilia into its basic theme of vengeance from beyond the grave.A bevy of attractive Korean actresses also help to make this movie a tad more memorable (gorgeous Jeong-yun Choi as the victim in the film's opening scene, lovely leading lady Ji-won Ha, the aptly named Yu-mi Kim as yummy mummy Ho-jeong, and Ji-yeon Choi as troublesome jail-bait Jin-hie); the best performance of the film, however, has to be from five year old Seo-woo Eun, whose turn as possessed child Yeong-ju is disturbingly convincing.6.5 out of 10, but not quite good enough to be rounded up to a 7.

tomimt Phone begins as a horror movie about a mysterious phone number, that seems to kill people. A reporter, Ji-Won (ji-Won Ha) gets a new number, after she begins to get telephone calls she suspects to be connected on a underage sex scandal she has revealed. But the calls continue.But then somewhere in the middle the plot turns into more of a thriller mystery with supernatural themes in it and the whole ghost thing gets a form of "who did it".The script is okay, but the direction jumps a bit too much from one place to another and lot of things happen very suddenly and unexplained. Other than that the film is okay and manages to give a scare or a two, but it really depends a bit too much to a viewer to make a leap of faith a couple of times too many .

rust37 Having read local reviews on the Phone, I didn't expect much. An excessive use of phones in Asian horror-making made me believe this one to be another derivative of Ringu's and Co. To my utter surprise this hidden gem was not about phones and rotten babes, but what any horror movie should be in the first place - the solid drama.The second trick the Phone played on me was cheating my guessing. The first 1/5th of it seemed to follow the Ring or Missed Calls canvas, the second part looked to me like borrowed from, say, Ju-on, but closer to the climax it appeared to be pretty close to pretty alike to the Stir of Echoes with a stronger and deeper dramatic background. My other surprise was about that weird kid, better say her ability to instantly change from innocent child from a postcard to some really scary demon without any make-up of FX. I've never seen a kid scarier than that, her look will haunt me for long. Special thanks for putting wit and explicit lines in her part. Another convincing performance was delivered by an actress playing Ho Jung (sorry for my Korean if.. ), again rather her upside down change in portraying a character.Final and very special thanks are for minimalistic approach. The Phone is built on nuances rather than on quantities. Just can't help falling in love with Korean horror-making.The only warning is that it's quite slow in development, although this slow pace is building to it's charm. So be patient. Probably one may call it secondary, but it's worth remembering here, that using same ingredients not necessarily leads to the same result.My final verdict will be minimalistic too - a definite must-see for horror gourmands