Scarecrow-88 The vengeful spirit of Kyung-ah(Ji-won Ha), a young woman who supposedly leaped from the balcony of a building to her death on top of a car's roof below, murders a group of friends, it seems, for no reason. Hye-jin(Gyu-ri Kim)was an unfortunate eye-witness to Kyung-ah's death from the street and finds that one of her friends, Seon-ae(Jeong-yun Choi)has returned from her stay in America. It's been two years since Kyung-ah's demise and Hye-jin is still burdened by troubling nightmares regarding her friend. Seon-ae claims that Kyung-ah follows her everywhere, tormenting her. Soon, a new friend enters Hye-jin's life, a mysterious young woman named Eun-ju..but is this new relationship real or imagined because Eun-ju eerily resembles Kyung-ah. As her friends are found dead by grisly means, Hye-jin must question whether or not Seon-ae is the culprit or perhaps Kyung-ah herself. A major sub-plot concerns a hot-shot lawyer and his lover, both part of the group being slaughtered one at a time. What Hye-jin doesn't know is that her friends hide a horrifying secret which might explain the gruesome events transpiring.Despite being visually arresting(I thought the camera-work was dazzling and the use of light effective), this film still utilizes the basic "ghostly revenge" supernatural slasher sub-plot. And, the ghostly haunts resemble the Asian horror hits populating the marketplace at the time, such as RINGU & JU-ON:THE GRUDGE. Still, there are enough unpleasant images and some nasty violence to keep one off-guard. There's an overhead shot of a victim lying in her bathtub bleeding as the shower rains upon her and one graphic attack on one male victim in a phone booth after his eye is gouged out. I thought "Nightmare" felt very reminiscent to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER regarding how a secret kept within a small group leads to their being murdered. Slasher fans might just enjoy this one, but I don't think director Byeong-ki Ahn's film stands out from the pack of Asian horror flicks streaming today. Though, saying that, I do believe his visual eye is beneficial to the horror genre, as is cinematographer Seok-hyeon Lee..they craft a good looking product here, even if the material feels rather deja vu.

vegansXe The following are some of the most blaring problems with this movie: 1) Clichés abound. Seriously, awful "twists" are everywhere.2) The narrative jumps around in time, which would be fine if done well, but it's not.3) Lame characters that don't develop so much as either remain utterly static, or drastically change for no good reason.4) Big one: HORRIBLE ACTING. Over the top from nearly every person.The following are some of the best points from the movie: 1) The lead is damn good looking.As I see it, there are only two kinds of people who would be into this movie: a) People who can sit through 90 minutes of tripe simply because the lead is attractive.b) People who often think to themselves, "I like Hollywood dreck rife with clichés and overacting, but if only I could watch it in Korean..." There's a lot of good Korean cinema out there, so why waste your time with garbage?

Infofreak 'Nightmare' is only the second Korean horror movie I have seen. The first was the overrated 'The Eye', which many people seem to love (I don't). Personally I enjoyed this less known supernatural thriller a lot more. It owes a huge debt to classic American slasher movies of the past, but they themselves were inspired by Italian giallo, so it doesn't really matter who did what first, as long as it entertains. And this very effective thriller does that. I can see certain superficial similarities between 'Nightmare' and the much hyped Japanese horror film 'Ringu', but the approach is quite different, and I think this is the better of the two movies. The story concerns a group of school friends hiding a secret from the past, which comes back to haunt them. Standard horror fare true, but 'Nightmare' makes this familiar material worth watching just the same. And having a few very cute Korean girls among the cast certainly does it no harm! Worth a look, it's better than you'd think.

ranjeet2000 This movie I thought would be a lot better. I didn't find it that scary, but more gorey. The flashback & present time is not distinguised clearly. It's shocking what you discover as the movie goes on. This an okay movie if you're really interested in Horror flicks, but don't get your hopes up.