Although 40 minutes pass before the first murder and the finale twists into a whole new realm, this is, at heart, a suspenseful ensemble old-school slasher flick. The alternative title, BLOODY REUNION, certainly makes it sound like a forgotten 80’s stalk n slash movie, and it borrows tricks and techniques from the initial American slasher cycle. Ominous subjective cameras voyeuristically observe girls undressing; potential killers in the cast are weighed down with past traumas; and the killer, clad in a creepy-as-hell kids’ bunny mask and related sweater, gets a through-the-mask P.O.V. shot in homage to HALLOWEEN.
Ultimately, it’s the best new wave slasher movie since HAUTE TENSION. The reunion of the title centers around retired schoolteacher Miss Park and a group of her students. Dying and wheelchair-bound, Miss Park suffers from a degrading condition that leaves her with no control over her bowel movements. Gradually, it becomes clear that the visiting ex-students all resent her influence on their lives and have led miserable post-graduation lives that they blame on her behavior. Miss Park has a dark secret of her own : a disfigured son she kept locked away to avoid the cruel jibes of his peers. Meanwhile, flashbacks depict the teacher as a mean-spirited figure with obvious favorite pupils and a penchant for bullying. With this in mind, just who is killing the bitter reunited students at Park’s home?
As stylishly shot and beautifully crafted as we have come to expect from South Korean genre cinema, this intense shocker deftly blends bonafide scares, SAW-era sadism and surprising poignancy. Director Lim Dae-Woong doesn’t hold back on the violence. A blood soaked victim bound to a chair has a kettle of boiling water poured into his mouth. A girl has her eyelids stapled to her forehead. And you may wince at an icky moment in which an army of ants crawl into various orifices of a powerless victim. The film’s violence veers from graphic to powerfully suggestive, and both approaches pay rich dividends.
While not stinting on the eye-gouging mayhem, this movie has more depth than you might expect. As has become common in the post-M Night Shyamalan movie universe, a disorientating, movie-altering twist follows what would have been a conventional unmasking wrap-up. The ending opts for an emotional climax rather than a visceral one and unveils a memorably pitiful, sympathetic killer.
Many slasher films explain away the killer’s actions via the impact of past cruelties, but this film takes rare care to develop credible adult characterizations (sustained to the very end) within a serious-minded story of how school bullying is not always meted out by the pupils and does always have a life-long effect on the victims. “I was just one of your many students…but we even remember the color of your nail polish!” is a key line of dialogue, and movingly delivered in one of Bloody Reunion’s best non-gory moments.
-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
