Until the End

On the third day of Hwang Jung-min films I give to thee, a super duper scary movie. Today, South Korean horror flick Black House, and Watchmen.

Black House
Directed by Shin Tae-ra, starring Hwang Jung-min, (and, since I'm too lazy to look) other actors.

Black House is super creepy. Hwang plays a newbie insurance agent that gets in over his head. While on a house call to go over a man's insurance policy, Hwang's character finds the body of the man's step-son hanging from a light fixture. From that point on, Hwang's character is terrorized for looking into the death, as he is sure the father is a murderer.

Unlike so many contemporary horror films, Black House is straight up horror. Instead of going the post-Scream route, deconstructing the genre for scares, Black House utilizes standard horror film conventions, and they work. For horror fans that like their films with genuine thrills like the old days of horror (Halloween, Evil Dead, etc.) Black House is a treat, and a must see.

Watchmen
Directed by Zach Snyder, starring Patrick Wilson, Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Carla Gugino.

Watchmen is a good comic book adaptation, but a flawed film. It's obvious from watching Watchmen (pun intended) that Synder and Co. took great care in creating the cinematic version of Alan Moore's acclaimed comic, but it still falls short of cinematic greatness.

My thoughts: Patrick Wilson and Malin Åkerman, were great. Jackie Earle Haley was incredible. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (an actor I do in fact like) was over-the-top and lacked believability. Robert Wisden's Richard Nixon was terrible. His performance was all over the place, and the makeup f/x used to recreate Nixon's face were awful to the point of being distracting. The rest of the cast was just okay.

The special f/x were fine. Snyder's direction was questionable at best, and at times he tried to be cleverer than he is capable of being, which was annoying and distracting. I'm not a huge fan of the comic, so I was never worried about how faithful it was stay to the source material, but I think in that regard, Watchmen is a success. Though it is faithful and at times enjoyable, it's not a very good film. Without Patrick Wilson, Malin Åkerman, and Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen would have been damn near interminable.


Check back tomorrow for the fourth day of Hwang Jung-min films.