Being hyped by North American distributor Tartan as the film that "started the Asian horror explosion", Whispering Corridors was released a mere few months before 1998's Ringu and while it might be of interest to completists of the sub-genre it's really not that worthwhile for the regular horror fan.

The film starts out on the right foot as the teacher as a strict girls academy hangs herself after seeing visions of a student who's supposed to be dead (there's some good imagery here) before settling down into what plays out more like a "coming of age" drama and diatribe on the Korean schooling system than a supernatural horror flick. Sure, they throw in some spooky music, hints of hauntings, and a few bloody deaths (including the demise of a mean male teacher who gets his comeuppance in a rather cool way); but in the end it's just not overly interesting and it doesn't contain much in the way of suspense.

In fact, Whispering Corridors, is much too busy focusing on the friendship between two girls (one a loner, the other a rebel) and having flashbacks involving a new teacher who's arrived at the store who just happened to be the best friend of Jin-Ju, the girl that's supposed to be haunting the halls of the school. Also throw into that mix a stark look at the school system in which it's apparently quite normal for the teachers to scream insults at and hit the students.

It's almost as if the ghost story was a second thought in between all the talkiness and mild drama, and it's because of this reason that the entire thing just doesn't seem to work. Plus the script throws out an end twist that's pretty muddy in execution and feels just a bit too silly.

Whispering Corridors, however, must have been quite a hit in its homeland as it's gone on to spawn three sequels (the next being Momento Mori) and it is fairly well made and acted - but it just didn't satisfying the "horror fan" in me.

Followed by Memento Mori. (Chris Hartley, 4/28/05)

Directed By: Park Ki-Hyung.
Written By: In Jeong-Ok, Park Ki-Hyung.

Starring: Lee Mi-Yeon, Kim Kyu-Ree, Choi Se-Yeon.

Picture Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: For some reason most Asian horror films that make it across to North America suffer from having a soft picture and quite a lot of grain and dirt; and this is no exception. But Tartan have done the best they can with it and the clarity for the most part is not too bad.

Extras: Very little here as we get a trailer (plus trailers for other releases in Tartan's "Asia Extreme" line: A Tale Of Two Sisters, Koma, Oldboy, and A Snake Of June) and a very slim photo gallery.