The Phone (Korea, 2002)
Directed by: Ahn Byung-ki
Starring: Kim Jang-Hoon, Hong Kyung-Min, Eun Seo-woo

And you thought your cell phone plan was bad? Korea¹s highest-grossing horror movie, THE PHONE, is a consumerist nightmare unfolding in sterile, over-designed homes that turn into gothic graveyards, as if a layout in Architecture Today suddenly got hijacked by Mario Bava, and he turned all those contemporary furnishings into mossy headstones.

Career journalista, Ji-Won, is getting all sorts of menacing phone calls after her latest article busted a kiddie-hooker ring wide open. She switches to a new cell phone number and instead of menacing calls from gangland pimps, she starts getting spooky calls from beyond the grave. Things get worse when she visits her best friend, Ho-Jun, and lets Ho-Jun¹s daughter answer her cell phone. Before you can say “Linda Blair” this perfect little tyke is possessed by an evil spirit. Ji-Won, Ho-Jun, Ho-Jun¹s husband and a gang of other well-dressed yuppies quickly discover that their stylish clothes and chic haircuts are rotten from the inside out and no match for the spirit of a moldering schoolgirl having the ultimate bad hair day.

Not just another clone of Japan¹s The Ring, this character-driven movie is a very Korean nightmare where all those pretty things you buy are just a cheap bandaid on a festering wound. The real bonus in this movie is the cute little possessed girl, Young-Ju, played by the most insane freak in Korea, Eun Seo-Woo, who deserves a special Academy Award for her performance. Whether she¹s French kissing daddy, hissing like a cat, or trying to break her own neck, this tyke is out of control in a way even Maury Povich can¹t handle.

In true gothic fashion, the family unit turns out to be just another nest of neurotic possessiveness, hidden homicide, and lustmord. As the minutes tick off until "The End" all the stylish ephemera of modern Korean filmmaking does a time lapse dissolve into an Edgar Allan Poe haze with unlimited minutes and no roaming charges.