Excellent adaptation.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Movie: Black House (18)Rating: 4.5/5South Korean films are definitely worth watching, especially action thrillers. But horror movies from there are also quite well made, and this film BLACK HOUSE is the proof. It's very nearly written, well conceived and quite refreshing. It has got the basic elements which will impress any moviegoer, and it's not merely for horror fans. BLACK HOUSE opens on a gripping note and proceeds to tell the story without any hiccups, thanks to the editing. The screenplay is quite engaging, and it would be hard to leave this film in between, even if you're busy. The film stays true to the genre, and this is absolutely a positive sign.Hwang Jung-min is a very talented actor who with his performance proves that he can pull out roles of any kind he's given. He excels in multiple sequences, and his dialogue delivery is decent. Yoo Sun and Kang Shin-il are menacing and their solid performances are a major asset to the film. Kim Seo-Hyung and other supporting actors, however don't have much to do but still end up delivering good performances. The cinematography is decent, and is excellent in multiple shots. The small action bits have been done decently, and some shots are really praiseworthy. The climax was unexpectedly amazing and jaw-dropping. See it to believe!If you love watching horror films, then BLACK HOUSE is a treat of course, but even if you don't, the film will take you on a creepy ride if you have courage to step in!

By the title of my review, you might think I would chide films for imitating Hollywood out of some sort of reverence for the latter, but that couldn't be farther from the truth as Black House's imitation is its ultimate downfall. Being a fan of Korean cinema and having seen the original film (Kuroi Ie from Japan), I was disappointed to find that director Shin Terra basically removed the deeper aspects of psychology from the story and chose instead to focus on developing the plot along in the most basic of manners.At the beginning of the film, insurance agent Jun-oh is drawn into a complex web of death, dismemberment, and deceit as he suspects the apparent suicide of a client's son was not suicide at all. What would seem like simple insurance fraud grows into something much more sinister as Jun-oh encounters a true psychopath. But where the film goes wrong is in focusing on Jun-oh and his generic, last-minute back story rather than on the nature of a psychopath. Let's face it, Jun-oh the character is not interesting in the least. He goes through no changes throughout the film and his immovable belief in humanity at the end of the film is all the more laughable and ridiculous after the graphic horrors he witnesses. Sure, as you say, the killer is just like you. They just like to rip the heads off of dogs and cut people into little pieces. But they're just like you. Where Kuroi Ie goes right in this aspect is first depicting the psychopath from the very beginning of the film. You know who you're dealing with, so the whole movie carries a tense atmosphere. Black House, on the other hand, chooses to go the red herring route with an oh-so-obvious red herring and oh-so-obvious culprit. The ultimate revelation for Jun-oh is neither surprising nor shocking. Kuroi Ie scores here in a second manner by depicting the psychopath with a true disconnect, a real sense of going through life without a care, rather than as a bland and boring caricature TRYING to act like a psychopath.In the end, Black House tries to differentiate itself from the stale output of vengeful ghost films, but it falls instead into the generic thriller camp. Too stupid to be scary, and too boring to be intelligent. Couple all that with a cheesy, tacked-on ending about the cycle of violence and you've got yourself the worst kind of film - one that thinks its being artsy.

"Black House" (why the hell the title by the way??) is an interesting Korean movie that at first looks like going a different way. I guess you could call this a horror movie but it has a lot of thriller elements and rather sticks to reality than going for the typical Asian ghost mythology. The movie starts out with the main character, an insurance claims agent who gets a new client who especially asks for him after the previous agent seemed to unfriendly. Right after meeting at the clients house the first dead person appears... the son is found hung in is room. Since the client acts pretty strange and tries to collect the money right away the agent looks into the story and considers it a murder... he soon gets drawn deep into the strange clients life and finds out his wife is even stranger. From here on the movie moves slowly like a thriller about a bizarre insurance fraud that is slowly mixed with Slasher elements when the agents dog gets decapitated, his answering machine is filled with silent calls, people lose limbs and disappear while he uncovers the strange history of his client.Although the movie is really slow paced and like many Asian movies way too long for my taste it kept my attention by building tension that is mainly relying on the excellent main actors and on the great cinematography. Unfortunately the movie takes a dive in the end because suddenly you find yourself in a very well known story about a strange woman killing people and doing that in a way that reminded me more of many Asian ghost horror movies. Spoiler: When the movie incorporates things like sowing eyes and mouths shut but never explains why and in the end makes the ghost of the dead woman reappear in a girl that paints pictures like the woman did before you feel like the director was not sure if he wanted to make a thriller or a ghost/horror movie. All these elements are pretty fragmented and either I didn't get the connection or there simply is none which I'd suspect. If the director stuck to the real world and the bizarre fraud story and tightened the script this could have been a great movie... like many movies "Black house" takes a dive when it is supposed to deliver meaning to an otherwise suspenseful story.

Insurance agent, Jun-oh (jeong-min Hwang) goes to a house to talk to an insurance client, where he finds the hanging body of the client's son dead of an apparent suicide. But he soon feels that the young lad didn't kill himself, but was killed to get at a sizable insurance payout. When no one else seems to believe him or even care, Jun decides to get to the truth by himself by digging into the past of the troubled family.Let it be noted that I have yet to see "Kuroi ie" the 1999 Japanese adaptation of the same Yûsuke Kishi novel that this film was also based on, so I can't offer up any comparisons. That being said, I found the South Korean version of the story to be captivating enough to keep my attention throughout and marginally well acted. The film plays it's horror out mostly psychologically until it's last 40 minutes when the film goes all out Slasher and the gore becomes much more visceral. I enjoyed and recommend it.My grade: B- Region 1 DVD Extras: A 21 minute Making of; Production design featurette (7 minute); and 10 deleted scenes