23:59: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
A group of young soldiers are on the last leg of their national service, spending the last few weeks in a training camp on a jungle island. A rumor had been circulating like wildfire amongst the soldiers. A mad woman living on the island had died at exactly at 23:59 (11.59 PM), and it is believed that her spirit had returned to haunt them at exactly the same time. Tan, the introverted platoon outcast, is adamant that he will be the next victim. He tries to convince his buddy Jeremy that the woman’s ghost has been visiting him every night. Jeremy laughs and dismisses Tan’s concerns, telling him that it is just his overactive imagination.
I thought this was a pretty interesting premise. It takes what we know from Asian horror cinema and adds a military base to it. It’s not as great as Ringu or Ju-On but it did have some pretty decent creepy moments. One of them being when they pushed Tan into a locker and the evil spirit grabbed his shoulder in the middle of complete darkness. The one thing that snuck up on me was the fact that the film was in pretty much in full Chinese and it threw me off a bit when they would do full scenes in English. Other than that I think the film worked on levels that I didn’t expect it to. Even when it came to the acting, this movie impressed me. It wasn’t too over the top or cheesy. It felt like it played like a nicely tuned drama with horror elements thrown in. Magnet releasing has done a really great job at putting out good, quality genre films and this one was no different. I recommend checking this out, especially if you like to discover indie horror gems that you won’t find in your mainstream theater but be ready to read plenty of subtitles.
Special Features:
The Making of 23:59 – A pretty decent featurette that shows the making of the film. It’s not too in depth but it’s enjoyable.
