Horror Story

[berto]

It's a Korean horror story. I got a big kick out this. Rather clever.

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=31&weekday=tue

You know, I love horror so I think this might be a good place to talk all thing horror. Books, movies, games and the lot. i can't be the only horror fan here.

 

[V]

Then I take it your member title comes from the Korean movie of the same name.

I saw that movie some time ago and while horror doesn't do much for me as a genre, some parts of that movie were pretty uncomfortable. So it probably worked if its intention was to make the average audience squirm. As for who I rooted for, I was behind Soo-hyun all the way and the ending I found unapologetically satisfying

I talked about it with a couple other people and they seemed to think both main chars as bad as one another, or you can't tell which one the title might refer to, either way it was disturbingly fun to see the cat become the mouse and vice versa, and even more disturbing to find I could get behind what Soo-hyun was doing so easily, not to mention how I developed a palpable hate for Choi Min-Sik's character by the end. I'd have done the same to him, although maybe not so quickly or humanely. It's like the movie makes you see the devil in yourself as well.

 

[berto]

Then I take it your member title comes from the Korean movie of the same name.

Yes, as a matter of fact. It's a pun considering the theme of the forum.

As for the movie, Korea has a more liberal approach to graphically strong content. Just look at the vengeance trilogy.

However, I Saw the Devil is not a horror movie it's a cautionary tale. It's the old Nietzsche saying: "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster..." There is no question as to who is the bad guy, the rapist and torturer is; the question is which of the two is the devil. Is the one who kills and rapes, the monster, or is it the one that comes at night to punish him for his sins. Soo-hyun is slowly corrupting himself and becoming just as much a monster as Kyung-chul because otherwise the vengeance won't fit the crimes. It's an old theme and a concept that has been explored numerous times.

By the way, the full quote is “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” From Beyond Good and Evil. That notion is one that HP Lovecraft has build entire stories on. I don't really like Lovecraft but I read that one story that pretty much is nothing but this.

 

[V]

Yeah, that was my first thought watching it - I own a copy of BG & E. I did wonder if the movie makers were going further than that though and inferring that the "devil" might actually be the man out for vengeance because he is the one who has a sense of remorse and of right and wrong unlike the other who is just too far gone. Should he be held to higher standards, etc.

Awesome movie though. Probably hard for some to stomach and it stays with you but a pretty good exercise in horror/thriller.