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Review

In Whispering Corridors, Park Ki-hyung raised chills with youngsters who communicated their view of the supernatural through art. He mines the same vein in a much more intimate setting here, as otherworldly forces set up camp in your own back yard. He lets our fear of the Other settle naturally into children, nature, and a seemingly unnatural attraction between the two. Little Jin-sung is a tree-hugger quite literally, and his suspicious mom is immediately afraid of and threatened by this connection – and with good reason! Park keeps his camera at a distance from his protagonists, creating compositions that should be serene, but are nevertheless unsettling. The atmosphere of mock normality is easily upset by small things, breeding layers of tension. If the boy creates unease with his arrival, the stress becomes even worse when he suddenly disappears and the family turns their suspicions on each other. And of course, everyone both hopes for and dreads his bizarre return. Some of Park’s techniques are a bit wobbly, but this is another superior Korean creeper from a talent worth watching.

 -- Brian Thomas