Suddenly at Midnight
Encyclopedia
Suddenly at Midnight is a 1981 South Korean horror film directed by Ko Young-nam.
who recently died in a house fire. At first, Yu-jin and his wife, Seon-hee, welcome Mi-ok into their home, but Seon-hee begins to have misgivings when she sees a strange wooden doll that the maid has brought with her. Having suffered from nightmares about exactly the same doll, Seon-hee becomes increasingly suspicious that Mi-ok is trying to kill her and usurp her household. In a fit of madness, Seon-hee causes Mi-ok to fall to her death. From then on, Seon-hee is tormented by visions of the doll attacking her.
that was genuinely frightening, describing it as "a mysterious psychological study... that beguiles the viewer right up to its bizarre closing image." He praised the film's direction, saying, "Ko has a good feel for how to create tension from precise editing and the patient accumulation of evocative details", and also credited actress Kim Young-ae for a "convincing performance as the panicked wife".
Plot
Kang Yu-jin, a wealthy biology professor doing a butterfly field study, takes in a new housemaid; the young woman, Mi-ok, is the daughter of a shaman priestessKorean shamanism
Korean shamanism, today known as Muism or sometimes Sinism , encompasses a variety of indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Korean people and the Korean area...
who recently died in a house fire. At first, Yu-jin and his wife, Seon-hee, welcome Mi-ok into their home, but Seon-hee begins to have misgivings when she sees a strange wooden doll that the maid has brought with her. Having suffered from nightmares about exactly the same doll, Seon-hee becomes increasingly suspicious that Mi-ok is trying to kill her and usurp her household. In a fit of madness, Seon-hee causes Mi-ok to fall to her death. From then on, Seon-hee is tormented by visions of the doll attacking her.
Cast
- Kim Young-ae ... Seon-hee
- Yoon Il-bong ... Kang Yu-jin
- Lee Ki-seon ... Mi-ok
- Hyun Hye-ri
- Kim Geun-hie
- Kim Min-gyu
- Kim Gi-jong
- Lee Yae-sung
- Gwak Geon
- Yoo Myeong-sun
Release
Suddenly at Midnight was released in South Korea on 17 July 1981, and received a total of 28,178 admissions.Critical response
The movie and Ko Young-nam are referred to as a classic work and director of Korean horror film. In a review for Koreanfilm.org, Darcy Paquet cited Suddenly at Midnight as a rare example of 1970s-80s Korean horrorK-Horror
Korean horror, sometimes referred to as K-Horror, is the term given to horror films made as part of the cinema of Korea. Korean horror features many of the same motifs, themes, and imagery as Japanese horror. Korean horror has been around since the early years of Korean cinema; however, it wasn't...
that was genuinely frightening, describing it as "a mysterious psychological study... that beguiles the viewer right up to its bizarre closing image." He praised the film's direction, saying, "Ko has a good feel for how to create tension from precise editing and the patient accumulation of evocative details", and also credited actress Kim Young-ae for a "convincing performance as the panicked wife".