A young woman (Min-seo Chae) battling leukemia – and also dealing with personal bereavement – emerges from hospital with a nihilistic outlook. She is cared for by her devoted sister, whose gift of a long black wig transforms her appearance, both their fortunes and, most notably, Chae’s personality. It also instigates a chain of apparently supernatural events. As the wig appears to cause her cancer to go into remission, a gradually unfolding back-story reveals the hair-piece to have been constructed from the hair of a suicide victim.
The recurring Eastern horror image of malevolent / ghostly black hair (usually, admittedly, attached to a malevolent, ghostly female) reaches its zenith with the almost inevitable, could-have-been-laughable THE WIG. The silly title and premise inspires an instant sense of dismissal and piss-taking, and the movie lives up (meaning down) to that promise with one, solitary line of dialogue that also seems inevitable in the circumstances : “There’s a ghost in the wig!”.
What’s surprising is that this movie, from the director of A BLOODY ARIA, overcomes its core absurdity with sincere acting and an emotionally raw, somber approach. It may end up being too sedately paced for its own good but give it credit for persuading the audience to swallow the concept of an evil wig. In particular, the haunting central performance by the gravely beautiful Min-seo Chae goes some way to making it work.
Curiously, the film is most effective in its non-supernatural moments of personal drama and everyday horror : this element is reinforced by the fact that the (downbeat) finale is more emotional and tragic than it is horrific or frightening. Along the way, the well crafted picture is punctuated by a FINAL DESTINATION-style creative, gruesome death sequence, nightmare scares, fairly familiar surrealistic imagery (a sinister head in a toilet spewing out reams of CG hair) and even some bonafide nastiness (notably a moment in which the heroine bloodily pulls her scalp apart with her fingers). The most potent chills come from some creepy business with a sinister reflection.
Put aside your pre-conceived prejudice against the premise and THE WIG may quench your thirst for well done, sincere Eastern horror.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
