‘A Tale of Two Sisters’
The late ’90s and early 2000s saw an explosion of Asian horrors hitting our screens. Ever since I watched the original, award-winning Thai film Shutter, I’ve been addicted to Asian horror. The astounding ability of the Asian market to create the most terrifying films of our generation astounds me and leaves me thirsty for more each and every year.
The five titles we’ve selected for this spooky month are no exception and all must-sees for any horror movie aficionado. The following films from Korea, Thailand and Japan are sure to leave you covered in chills and desperate for more.
Directed by the talented Koji Shiraishi, Carved is created from the old urban legend of the slit-mouth woman. If you are unfamiliar with this particularly terrifying urban myth, then allow me to indulge you. A woman is seen walking the underbelly of the local urban subway wearing a surgical mask covering her face (not unusual under the current climate). She approaches her victims directly asking, “Do you think I am pretty?” When they answer “yes”, she removes her mask, revealing her savage nightmarish gashes from cheek to cheek that makes the Joker’s seem like a paper-cut. Then she asks, “How about now?” If the victim answers “no”, she kills them and if they still answer “yes”, she gives them a similar makeover…
Phone delivers where the others have failed to. Set around an investigative reporter who is writing an article about a pedophile ring, one of the shamed members begins stalking her, leading her to change her number. What she learns early on is that everyone who has ever owned that number has died mysteriously. As the film progresses, she must find out what has happened to the past victims before she becomes one herself.
No, not the love story starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. Ghost, or Dead Friend, directed by Kim Tae-gyeong, follows Min Ji-won, an ambitious student suffering from amnesia. As she tries to remember her past, she becomes aware that her old friends are mysteriously drowning. Min tries to unravel her past quickly to prevent more people from dying.
This neck tingling addition to the list is written and directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. For those of you who don’t know, the Thai name of this film, Fad, means “twins”, and this is where the fear begins. The story follows Pim who moves with her partner from Thailand to Korea to get a fresh start to life after losing her conjoined twin.
What happens after they move involves her deceased twin, and brilliant directing will have you sitting on the edge of the couch, chewing on your pillow.
A Tale of Two Sisters follows a young woman returning from a mental hospital who goes to live with her sister, father and step-mother in their country home. As conflict arises between the family members, disturbing events between the stepmother and a ghost haunting their home begin to emerge. This film won Best Picture in 2004 at the Fantasporto Film Festival and deserves the award completely. Between brilliant cinematography, lighting and colours, together with an impressive and spellbinding score, this film will leave you looking behind you and questioning your own sanity.
Related: 7 Horror Films With Anti-Patriarchy Undertones To Watch This Halloween Season
