I
have recently watched and review the 5 films that make up the
Whispering Corridors/ghost School series of films and thought
that i might also look at the series as a whole.
The
series consists of 5 films (at the time or writing), these are:
The
5 films come from Korea are separate stories with different
characters and can be watched in any order but, they are connected by
certain themes and plots;
All
the films are are set in an all girls school, it is never said
whether it is meant to be the same school but it does look like the
same buildings are used in some of the films. The girls in
Whispering Corridors walk past the steps that are used in Wishing
Stairs.
There
is always at least one ghost but the reason for the hauntings and how
the ghost appears differs.
The
main protagonist are a group of two or three girls normally with one
other who wants to join the group or be friends with one of the other
girls.
The
narrative of the films focus more on the relationships of the living
girls than the ghost. Even ‘Voice’ which starts by having
one of the main characters killed off and trying to work with her
friend to find out what happened ends up focusing on the living lead
and a new friend. As part of the focus on the character's
relationships we see that there is always two of the girls who
have a close relationship some of whom can been seen to lovers.
These relationships often play a big part in the focus of
the narrative and, even though i can’t think of a part in any of
the films where it is shown/stated that any of girls are lovers there
are often rumours going around the classes and it is often these
rumours that act as a catalyst in the films. Most of the time
the effects of the rumours are bad, they either drive a wedge between
the girls or lead to one of them being ostracised from the class or
group. In ‘A Blood Pact’ the rumour is spread about one of
the girls being pregnant and even though the rumour turns out not to
be true (or at least about the wrong girl) it is still shown to cause
grief and problems for the girl.
One
thing that stood out to me about the handling of the relationships is
that they were done well. Some of the girls have very close
relationships and it would have been very easy to show this with some
kind of physical device like kissing or even sex. Unlike some
movie's I don’t think the inclusion of a sex scene would have done
these films any damage but the fact that the relationships are shown
to be so strong with one is a good thing and even when a relationship
does get physical it is always as part of the story and, again
nothing is ever shown and only referenced when needed.
The
films don’t shy away from things like bullying and abuse and the
different films it can take and the feel of these seems to change as
the films go one. In the first two films there are abusive male
teachers one of whom has a relationship with one of the girls but the
later films have less of this. I’m not sure if this was
something that used to happen and has been phased out as attitudes
changed in the real world but it does seem to be something that may
have influenced the earlier films. The abuse of the girls
is not solely down to the male teachers. In ‘A Blood Pledge’
we have one of the girls beaten by her dad because he thinks she is
worthless. In ‘Wishing stairs’ one of the things shown is a
mother pushing her daughter into something she doesn’t want to do
(Ballet) because she never had the chance to do it when she was
younger and in ‘Memento Mori’ a friendship is broken up by a
teacher because one girl could do better but is being held back
because her friend is different.
The
films also show bullying, normally caused by the main characters
classmates when they see that one of the main cast is different.
normally because of how close two of the girls are but also if
one of the girls is seen to be different like in Memento Mori. In
‘A Blood Pledge’ we also see one girl picking on the others in
the group because she is weaker and how the whole pledge is set up
just to get rid of one rival.
The
ghosts are more than just a your normal horror villains. They
are rounded characters who, in some cases were members of the main
group when they were alive. They differ from ghosts in other
movies because they are not just revenge driven. It’s true
that some of them are out for revenge but there are other motivations
as well. The films do not necessarily go for the big scares
although the ghosts can be scarey. The films play on some of
the tropes for instance there is a scene in ‘Wishing Stair’ where
one of the girls climbs through a window, she is on all fours with
her hair over her face, the scene is reminiscent of Sadako
coming through the T.V. in ‘The Ring’. The ghosts
intentions are not always evil but their presents causes problems and
their methods are not always the normal way. Some of the
behavior of ghosts is explained in ‘Voice’.
The
interesting thing about the ghost, especially in the first 3 films is
that they are not always necessary as a lot of the ghosts action
is phycological. I did read (but not verified) that the
ghost in ‘Memento Mori) was never meant to be seen and was only put
in because it was felt that people would not like a ghost film with
no ghost in it.
The
Ghost School films are good but I did have a problem with them and
that is that they are not linea. This is especially true of
Memento Mori and Voice. Memento mori is told via a lot of
flashbacks but i found that it was hard to tell when the flashbacks
were happening. The voice is split into 4 days but the days are
not shown in order and are also separated by the credits running.
The
Whispering Corridor / Ghost school films are a good set of films that
tell emotional tales and also feature ghosts. The stories are
well thought out even if a couple of them seem to come across a bit
jumbled due to their non linear nature. The are not played just
for scares but, in the context of the film it’s not necessary. The
films don’t go over the top on the gore but again this is not
necessary, if there is a need for blood than there is blood. For
the most part the ghost are not monsters they are like a lot of J &
K-horror ghost that people (in the west) will have seen, that is pale
people with black eyes like Sadako.
If
you are looking for gory, slasher films then the whispering corridor
/ Ghost school films probably aren't for you although it may be worth
giving ‘A Blood Pledge’ a watch. If you are looking for something
different with a good story then give them a watch.
