Starring: Gam Wu-seong, Son Byung-ho, Oh Tae-kyung and Park Won-sang
Running Time: 111 minutes
Genre: Horror
Set during the Vietnam war, Kong Su-chang's R-Point has its moments and is a thoroughly entertaining and often highly unsettling fictional take on a horrific war. What is notable early on in the film, is not a unique Asian horror film feel, but rather a film highly influenced by American horror/war films such as Predator and Apocalypse Now and with Japanese ghost story beats throughout.
Lt. Choi (Gam Wu-seong) leads a group of Korean soldiers into an island strategically known as R-Point in search for a missing Battalion who have made their first radio contact in six months. Early on in their journey into hell, the signs are ominous for the soldiers with some effective scares and psychological chills provided with a menacing visit from a group of U.S. Soldiers that turns out to be not what it seems. There is a slump midway through the film, where the tension sags and the supposed trained group of soldiers become so irrational and annoying that you have little sympathy for their plight, bar Lt. Choi, whose battled and calm head presents the only truly likeable character in the film that you vaguely hope survives. But despite this slump midway, the film picks up pace for a fantastically devious and thrilling finale that is worth bearing with through the drawn out middle section.
Drawing from a range of influences, R-Point is an effective Korean horror film, with enough tension and a genuinely creepy atmosphere to keep the viewers interest. If you can survive the lacking middle-section and make it to the immensely enjoyable finale, you are in for a treat in effective horror.
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