It's hard to believe that the third annual After Dark Horrorfest movies are already being released by Lionsgate on DVD. The yearly collection of "8 Films To Die For" has become a perennial favorite, offering horror fans particularly visceral independent fright flicks (and admittedly some duds too) in a festival presentation. March 31 2009 saw the most recent octet of films arrive in stores, and this time Lionsgate provides some rather nice art in the form of lenticular slipcovers.

Voices, a brutal and bloody 2007 South Korean production, is based upon "the best-selling comic book series," or at least so says Lionsgate's blurb for the movie on the back DVD cover art. I'm sure I've never read this comic book series, so I can't comment upon how faithfully this film follows it.

What I can say is that, at times, it's a visually inventive fright flick. And as such, it's a worthy addition to the After Dark Horrorfest line. The storyline seems fairly simple and allows for "jump scares," creepy nightmare sequences, and plenty of elaborately bloody murder scenes. Unfortunately, however, it also seems distant somehow, and I never felt like I connected with the movie's heroine.

Voices tells the story of a young schoolgirl who witnesses two horrific murders involving family members. Both are brutal and bloody. She becomes convinced that she's suffering from a curse, and events bear that out. Everytime people have reason for wanting her dead, they attack her maniacally, and after both one of her peers and one of her teachers tries to slay her at the school, she embarks on a journey to discover what is happening to her and why. Along the way, a young man warns her not to trust anyone: her friends, her family, not even herself.

The clear strength of Voices is in its cinematography. Many scenes, horrific and mundane, are captured in an interesting manner. The color palette varies throughout the film. And yes, the violence (and there's a lot of it) is captured in a kinetic and blood-soaked manner. The best example of this is a murder scene in a hospital, where a young woman viciously stabs her helpless sister to death on a hospital bed. Lightning flashes while blood is sprayed frenetically over curtains.

However, Ga-in (the schoolgirl)'s plight fails to engage. I'm not sure if I fault the actress (Jin-seo Yoon) or the screenplay, but the character comes across as rather lifeless at times.

Despite this, I have to admit that the movie itself has an interesting mystery and a palpable sense of dread. Recommended to the horror-going crowd.

The DVD

Video:

Lionsgate gives Voices an anamorphic widescreen presentation in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. In general, details looked very good. Some scenes seemed a bit soft, but that might have been deliberate on the part of the filmmakers. It was nice, I should add, to see a contemporary horror film with a sense of color (which is quite strong here).

Sound:

The lone audio track is a Dolby Digital 5.1 affair in the film's original Korean language. No dubbed English tracks here, so English-speaking Americans will have to read the optional subtitles. That's not a deal-breaker for me, and the English subtitles were easy to read. Additional subtitles in Spanish are also available.

Extras:

No fewer than eight(!) trailers and ads precede the main menu: The Haunting in Connecticut, Crank 2: High Voltage, After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For III, Punisher: War Zone, The Transporter 3, Weapons, The Midnight Meat Train, and Saw V. There doesn't seem to be a link to these in the menu system, however.

The other extra on this disc is Miss Horrorfest Webisodes (57:45), a collection of fan-produced videos. While it's nice to have an hour of extras, it would have been even nicer to have an extra devoted to Voices itself. Oh well.

Final Thoughts:

Voices has a young heroine that fails to engage the audience, but the visuals are memorable and creepy. This South Korean fright flick is recommended to horror-goers, as long as they don't mind reading subtitles.

---------