Noise

Story: Joo-hee (Han Su-a) constantly hears noises from the upstairs neighbors. She is on the verge of going crazy and so she records everything with a camcorder. Then she seemingly disappears without a trace. That’s why her employer contacts her sister Joo-yeong (Lee Sun-bin) to find out if she knows anything about Joo-hee's whereabouts. Until recently, Joo-yeong used to live in the same apartment along with her sister, but then, among other things because of her sister constantly claiming to hear noises, she moved into the dormitory of her employer. Joo-yeong had never heard any noises, but she has also lost almost her entire sense of hearing and therefore can only perceive auditory stimuli with the help of a hearing aid. She moves back into the apartment and looks for clues about her sister's whereabouts. Then, she begins to hear things herself. Her downstairs neighbor also complains and tells her to keep the noise down, but she actually is completely quiet in her apartment. Joo-yeong reports her sister as missing, but the police do next to nothing. However, Joo-yeong constantly hears her sister's voice from somewhere, for example through the pipes, which is why she suspects she is being held captive somewhere in the building. In the end, she finds out that there is a secret about the previous resident of her apartment, which was kept from her because people didn't want it to affect the value of the apartment complex - especially since there will soon be a decision about whether it will be renovated, which could eliminate the problem caused by the thin walls. But it doesn’t take long until there is actually a dead person found on site ...

Review: The first thought that came to mind with "Noise" was that there was a lot of overlap with the psychological thriller "Wall to Wall". Both movies came out pretty much at the same time, but "Noise" was a little bit faster. Apparently, the filmmakers were aware of the parallels, as the director of "Wall to Wall" used the same team for the sound design and checked to make sure that the noises were not exactly the same. On closer inspection, though, it becomes clear that the premise may be similar - probably due to the current dissatisfaction with the quality of Korean apartments - but the genres are different. "Noise" obviously chooses "horror" as a direction and passes on the socio-critical tone of the other work. There are also quite a few moments that make you jump out of your seat, and the reason why they are so effective is actually due to a well-done sound design. The dull knocking, the high-frequency sounds, like the feedback on Joo-yeong's hearing aid, the scratching, all of this sets "Noise" somewhat apart from the competition and should please horror fans.

But that doesn’t mean that the movie skimps on visual horror. There are a few creepy scenes, which are then accompanied by a jump scare. Every now and then, our heroine doesn't have her hearing aid in, but her cell phone with speech recognition turns on and shows her confusing sequences of sounds that someone in her apartment seems to be uttering. This certainly gives you goosebumps, but unfortunately this also makes you wonder why the question is repeatedly thrown into the room whether there might not be a rational explanation for everything after all. So, it turns out that Joo-yeong - as is typical for the genre - just dreams some of these things, but at some point it becomes clear that she is hallucinating even when she is awake. Or does she have a special gift, and she is actually able to see ghosts? At a certain point "Noise" is overloaded with explanations. At the latest towards the end, when the person who is truly responsible for everything is revealed, it becomes too much of a good thing. Because there is also the past of our heroine, which has to be dealt with.

Sadly, we learn surprisingly little about Joo-yeong. But we do know that she lost her hearing in a car accident that killed her parents, and during which her sister suffered a serious leg injury. If this background story had been delivered bit by bit and if the trauma had been woven into the plot in a more meaningful way, the horror flick could have had more depth. Or at least our heroine would have become more nuanced, because unfortunately, she remains quite flat. Lee Sun-bin ("Rampant") sometimes seems quite distant in her role, but then again somewhat hysterical too. Only the despair caused by her not being able to find her sister gives her something human. But it's even worse with the other characters in the movie. Some are just trying to lure us on the wrong track and aren't as evil as they seem, with others it’s the other way around, and then there are also individuals like Joo-hee's friend, who only appears in the story when the events need to be moved forward a bit. You don't expect sophisticated characters in horror movies anymore, but that's still no excuse for poorly written ones.

However, the flick cannot be called boring at all. As mentioned before, there are numerous characters. The neighbors, who repeatedly complain about the noise, or who want to conceal the eerie occurrences so that the value of their property does not fall, or who simply seem to be insane, provide enough material to fill the 93-minutes of running time to the top. You just can't expect everything to make sense in the end too, though. For example, you wonder why the downstairs neighbor is after Joo-hee. If he had been granted a few more scenes showing his living conditions and how he loses his last bit of sanity due to the noise (similar to the protagonist in "Wall to Wall"), the flick would have deviated from the typical superficial horror movie and could have generated more interest. Instead, there are ramifications towards the end that want to conceal the fact that the story has lost focus and is actually not that complex. This could have been avoided, and the screenplay should have put more work into Joo-yeong as a character instead.

The ending could have been a lot more satisfying too if only we had been able to sympathize with the heroine a little more. In addition, the sound design is great, but the director could have played more with Joo-yeong's deafness. Especially the fact that she finds out at some point - which you could have guessed anyway - that the sounds might harm you or even bring you closer to death, could have justified to include more scenes in which she faces the horror without her hearing aid. This would have created some intense feeling of claustrophobia for the viewer. "Noise" is still one of the better horror movies, but not one that can be recommended without any hesitation. Female director Kim Soo-jin doesn't make use of her debut work's full potential. The premise is fascinating, but the characters are too flat. If there weren’t so much happening in the movie, you could have gotten bored pretty quickly. In the end, this is a horror flick that works well as genre food, but nothing more.

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