midnight
2021 Directed by Kwon Oh-seung
Horror Marathon Day 16 Film 25
Deafsploitation. This one may win the award for the dumbest plot. Two deaf women are hunted down by a serial killer. Another victim holds a blade to the killer's throat.. Rather than ask the deaf women what happened the police just release the killer-- eyeroll.. Halfway through a film like this I wonder if I should just shut it off.
I suppose some of the dissonance between the deaf and ineptitude of the society that doesn't understand how to communicate with them could be seen as some societal commentary, but often the film becomes farce. Emergency public panic buttons don't have features to communicate- the police let the killer go because he says some migrants did it, etc.
The killer blows some smoke and laughs- menacing the deaf women instead of just killing them like he did the others. It plays like a melodramatic tv soap. Will he or won't he? He's so handsome maybe they'll get together by the end? The best part of the film is really the mother and daughter's connection together. The weird comedy of absurdism is especially showcased when the would be saviors in the Korean public just believe whatever the killer says and bring her right to him when he says she's his sister - or go back and forth to threaten the mother. Pretty dumb.