Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

ChanFamous 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.

Ricardo Daly The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Derek Childs (totalovrdose) Everyone is certainly aware of the Japanese Ringu series, one of the first few Asian movies that made audiences terrified of women whose hair was longer than shoulder length. Although South Korea is responsible for making films that continue this particular genre trope, Dead Friend, otherwise titled the Ghost, is the one film that is potentially South Korea's answer to this iconic Japanese franchise. With this in mind, the feature contains in-depth originality that sets it apart from other films, and even when the next horror scene is predicted by the viewership, the film is still capable of surprising us with the unexpected, essentially providing the audience with a satisfying horror film.Though the explanation regarding why the ghost in question decides to begin extracting its vengeance is only loosely explained, and thus open to interpretation, the plot itself is as unexpected as it is entertaining, providing the viewer with a story that is not only coherent, but has enough suspenseful twists to keep viewers engaged until the end.Eun-seo (Hye-bin Jeon) is violently attacked by a water bound entity not long after her sister, Eun-jeong (Yun-ji Lee) uses a bunshinsaba with her friends to contact the dead. After this opening, which effectively grasps our attention, the story focuses upon Min Ji-won (Ha-Neul Kim), who has been suffering from amnesia. Her consulting physician makes it known that her condition is beginning to settle, and despite this being cause for celebration in most instances, in this feature, it is quite the opposite.Haunted by an unidentifiable figure in her dreams, which always has some bizarre connection with water, Ji-won begins a desperate investigation to find the link between the entity whose haunting her, and the memories she has long forgotten, and what's more, how all of it is connected to other young women, haunted by the same faceless terror.Unlike in films like Memento Mori, where the audience is on the outside looking in, Dead Friend thrusts the viewers right into the thick of the terrifying scenario. The effects are satisfactorily delivered, but it is the depth of character that really benefits the feature, with a collection of sympathetic, vile and enjoyable individuals that make this film such a great experience.The end of the feature could have been vastly more conclusive, though this is certainly overshadowed by the film's success; after watching this, you will never look at a glass of water the same way again.

tawdry_hepburn To call a film boring is not something I would usually count as a valid criticism. However, when a film is crassly made of spare parts from other films that weren't that good to begin with, and it is slow as molasses with no real payoff, I think it's fair to call a spade a spade. And The Ghost is a very boring film.A movie that is about as original as its' name, The Ghost tells the story of a young girl with amnesia being haunted by a ghost that holds the secret to her past. Only, it's a whole lot more complicated and less interesting than one would think.The plot line is almost incomprehensible for most of the picture and the hook, the amnesia element, only makes things worse. It seems that no one, including the screenwriter and director have any clue what the hell is happening at any given moment. Instead they chose to do what roughly amounts to the filmic equivalent of a sitcom clip show. There are scenes taken directly from Ringu, Dark Water, Shutter, The Grudge series, and a smattering of Pulse for good measure. Making matters worse, the half dozen female leads all dress and read their lines alike, making them impossible to tell apart.There is just nothing to grasp onto with this film. The story isn't all that well thought out. The amnesia gimmick is lazy. The mystery element is un-involving and handled with little grace. The characters never deduce anything, all the information is just handed out through the lead remembering her past whenever it is convenient for the plot.The cinematography, full of reflections and shots of water at least attempts to add to the subtext, a thematic link with the amnesia and the final twist (which I won't reveal) is nice, but often overwrought. Even the score feels borrowed and cliché.Worst of all, the inciting action for the curse isn't very interesting and the final twist is predictable and lame. "Wait, you mean that one character who has 15 minutes of screen time but appeared to have nothing to do with the plot comes back in the end? No!" Audiences are too savvy for this kind of tripe. Anyone who has seen any of the films that this rips off will find very little to even keep them awake with this feature. I used to think Shimizu was the bottom of the barrel for this kind of crap (remaking his grudge film no less than 5 times) but even his second rate work like Reincarnation, a film I couldn't even bring my self to finish, is miles ahead of this.For more reviews please visit www.collider.com

refresh daemon I received this Corean film for free when I purchased a bunch of other titles from YesAsia.com. I didn't really want it, but every time I deleted a free title, this one would pop up. Eventually, I consented to receive this one for free.This is a horror film, as you can tell from the title, and is not related to the U.S. film bearing the same name. The setup is this: There's an amnesiac woman who starts seeing funny things. People who she used to know start to wind up dead. Spooky goings on, I say. Spooky.Personally, I wasn't terribly frightened during the course of the film, although the jump-scares were sometimes effective, but at other times failed to startle me. The central conceit of the film (the amnesia) is a little silly, but I suppose that's what you deal with in horror films. In this one, it allows the film to be a mystery as well, as the young woman tries to recollect the past. The end conceits are a little forced and a bit hard to buy, personally, but it does help the film to be a little bit more than a total genre knockoff.Unfortunately, the film still ends up being less than impressive. The acting isn't terrible and the overall direction is easy to take in. It's just that the story is ho-hum. I suppose you could do a lot worse; this is mildly entertaining stuff. 6/10.

red__devilxox FIrst of all, people that love this movie either haven't seen enough Asian horror or are easily amused. It's nothing more than a movie combining both The Ring and Dark Water, with an edgy twist thrown in for good measure. I admit, the twist came out of nowhere for me and was interesting but overall, the movie was generic and un-original. Some aspects of the movie were dragged out but then they might have been essential to explain the relationships between the main character and others. I'd recommend this if you're new to Asian horror and the concept of a dark-haired wet girl out for revenge still scares you. Otherwise, it's just good for a popcorn movie. If you really want to get best results though, watch it alone and in the dark because the green scenery is a nice effect and the sound is at least guaranteed to make you jump at unexpected moments.