Shudder Saturday: 0.0Mhz (2019)

A fairly new film, and one that there isn't much information available, apologies in advance for any mistakes in the name format for those involved. I have tried to keep myself right, but sometimes my limited time and resources show up my glaring lack of professionalism.

Here's the summary on IMDb for 0.0Mhz - "Members of a supernatural exploration club go into a haunted house." That's all I knew about it going in. Well, that and the fact that it was another horror movie from South Korea. I was sold. Although I tried to keep things moderated, my expectations started to climb up. It feels like far too long since I watched a horror that really packed in the quality scares (I may be forgetting something, but Satan's Slaves might have been the last one) and I was ready to enjoy some haunting imagery.

Based on a webcomic by Jak Jang, 0.0Mhz is written and directed by Yoo Sun-dong (his second feature after Musudan, which I haven't seen). Sun-dong never seems sure of his own talent, which is a great shame because some of the better moments in the film are put together perfectly. You get a character who sees spirits of the dead while nobody else can, you get a character possessed in a way that leads to a twisted body moving around in moments of explosive energy, and you get a nice feeling of tension building as the club members realise that they've got in way over their heads. Unfortunately, these better elements are couched in a film that runs from one familiar beat to the next, something particular hard to overlook when you get the lively and menacing strands of dark hair that we've now seen in approximately one thousand other Asian horrors.

The cast all do okay, but the only ones who stand out are Jung Eun-Ji (the girl who can see dead people) and Choi Yoon-Young (the girl who seems to be in the most immediate danger from the spirit, and the actress asked to give the most physically demanding of the performances). The boys onscreen all either feel completely disposable or a little bit creepy anyway, or both. Even when put in danger, it's hard to care about them, and they certainly seem to get a much easier time than their female counterparts.

Perhaps there's a lot missing here that was laid out in the webcomic. It definitely feels that way, with no major history given to the main spirit/haunting and a few of the enjoyable details seeming pointless, although they add nice colour to the picture being painted. Horror movies can be full of small details that feel pointless, just to add scares and help the pacing in between the set-pieces, but things here are given a sense of importance here that never feel fully justified.

There's enough here to please horror fans who want something a bit different from the many glossy mainstream options, but I also suspect that, in some ways, this IS a glossy mainstream film. It just doesn't feel that way to us viewers who look at it as a title from the extensive range labelled "world cinema".

5/10