There are definitely some grisly moments in Black House, most of which involve heavy eye trauma.
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I´ve watched and reviewed so many Asian horror films the majority of them have become one innocuous blur. While the American market stumbled with second-rate knockoffs of "Scream" and the like, Japan brought a refreshing, new take to the genre with films such as "Ringu" and "Ju-On." Their neighbors quickly followed suit with box-office hits such as "Shutter" (Thailand), "A Tale of Two Sisters" (South Korea) and "The Eye" (Hong Kong). Of course, with tickets selling like hotcakes, Hollywood came a-callin´. Not content with cannibalizing their own films, major movie studios are snatching up Asian horror films right and left for remakes. While the remakes of "Ringu" and "Ju-On" have done quite well, other remakes such as "Pulse" and "One Missed Call", along with the "Eye" and "Shutter" remakes, have flopped both critically and financially. That hasn´t seemed to impede the Tinseltown juggernaut as plenty more remakes are on the horizon.
I haven´t been a fan of the majority of the Asian horror films though I know several friends who will swear by films like "Two Sisters" or "Shutter." For me, the genre isn´t immune to an incurable disease known as repetition. These films seem to drag up the exact same plot twists, story elements, visual cues and characters. The basic formula tends to follow the lead character (usually female) as they investigate strange, supernatural goings-on. They come across long-hidden skeletons in the closet and a ubiquitous spirit girl with long, black hair. I was expecting more of the same with "Black House", but found myself pleasantly surprised. For one thing, the ghost girl is thankfully not present within a single frame of the film. In fact, there´s nothing truly supernatural happening in the movie. Despite the title, this isn´t a haunted house picture. The lead character is male thus giving us a different dynamic than the damsel in distress. Finally, "Black House" brings in elements of torture porn and the slasher picture.
Jeon Jun-oh (Hwang Jeong-min) is the poster boy for the nebbish salaryman. He´s an insurance investigator who looks like a Korean Clark Kent with his suit & tie, black-rimmed glasses and stiff mannerisms. Jun-oh is haunted by the suicide of his younger brother who jumped off a roof when they were kids. New to the insurance game, Jun-oh naively tries to connect with his clients and freely gives personal information about himself which his boss warns him about. Jun-oh is surprised one day when a client whom he has never met, Yin Chung-bae (Kang Shin-il), asks for him by name to come by his house. There, Jun-oh is shocked to find the man´s stepson hanging from a noose in his bedroom. The police rule the death a suicide, our nerdy hero believes Chung-bae murdered the boy and used him as a collaborating witness.
Due to his slightly Pollyanna outlook, Jun-oh is appalled that any human being would murder their own child just for the insurance money. As usual in horror films, the police are a bunch of ineffectual dunces, so Jun-oh takes it upon himself to research Chung-bae´s checkered past. At the same time, Chung-bae takes a creepy obsession with Jun-oh as he impatiently demands he be paid the insurance claim. When Jun-oh learns that Chung-bae has a multi-million dollar policy on his wife, Yi-hwa (Yu Seon), he tries to take matters into his own hands. That pretty much goes about as well as you expect.
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[release]23623[/release]