The Red Shoes (Horror/2005/Tartan/DTS)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
If Asian
Horror films have not just played out the idea of doppelgangers, they have of
inanimate objects. Not to be confused in
any way shape or form with the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger classic of the
same name, Kim Yong-Gyun’s The Red Shoes
(2005) is an outright Horror flick about a pair of attractive pair of shows
that kill. That could have actually been
comic in itself, but the Ma Sang-Yeal screenplay wants to be all-Horror and
that is why it collapses into formula.
Instead
of being terrifying, it is flat, dull and never takes off at any time during
its somewhat long 103 minutes. The
tagline “one size kills all” is a god one, but the actual film never has that
kind of wit. Oddly, Korea has been
turning out the better Asian Horror cinema, but this one just never works
out. It still has enough moments that
genre fans may enjoy the better moments and sit through the rest, but there is
not enough substance to suspend disbelief here except the usual “trust us, its
happening” shtick which never works.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image seems to have actually been shot in the
1.66 X 1 Super 16mm film format, which explains the weak color and definition,
though this is still on the clean side considering the digital internegative
manipulation. Color suffers with the
title terror never looking red! Sure, it
looks off-red, light fuchsia, pale red, dark pink and every other shade but
red. This is simply because video red
even at the highest HD levels is not good red.
The sound is also an issue, recorded with too much slight echo and a
general lack of fullness, despite some good surrounds in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1
mixes.
Extras
include commentary by the director and cinematographer Kim Tae-Kyung, original
theatrical trailer and two featurettes.
One about the making of the film and the other about the visual effects
which begins with a great part about film transfers to digital that will be
particular interest to film fans.
- Nicholas Sheffo
