A top secret guard post (GP 506), located on the border between North and South Korea, becomes the location of a mysterious bloodbath that leaves a group of soldiers dead. With only one survivor left, a top army investigator (Chun Ho-jin) and his team are sent in to get answers quick. Unfortunately, with a horrid spell of rain forcing road closure, the investigation team find themselves trapped at GP 506. The one survivor is found covered in blood, clearly deranged and carrying an axe. Naturally he is the prime suspect, but could there be more to this story? And hey, why are the investigation team falling sick, one by one?
The fact that South Korea tend to churn out better horror flicks these days than their Japanese counterparts (the entire J-horror subgenre just doesn’t do it for me) plus the fact that this film didn’t feature a long-haired spooky ghostie had me slightly intrigued here. Unfortunately, after a fine, gory set-up, this Su-chang Kong military-horror outing eschews the iconic long haired ghost vibe for my second least favourite aspect of J-horror (and its imitators); the emphasis on a mystery/investigation plot. This almost never works for me, it’s not scary, generally not interesting, and often incoherent and tedious. Sadly, this is definitely the case here, and the fact that the long-haired ghosts have been replaced by a zombie ‘rage’ virus is not enough to save one from the resulting tedium.
After its impressively visceral set-up, the film takes far too long to kick into gear, drowning in dialogue scenes, confusing flashbacks, and dreary atmosphere. With too much talk and too many characters who become indistinguishable from one another, I simply lost all interest. And that’s a shame, because the FX are pretty cool, it’s far more violent than usual, and towards the end we are even presented with an interesting moral dilemma. But by then, I was already lost.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Proof that South Korea can churn out disappointing horror films as easily as their Japanese counterparts. Starts out gory fun, but drowns in talk, flashbacks, and too many characters.
