Movie Review: APT

Se-jin, a lonely department store employee, moves into a high-rise apartment building. One day she notices that the lights in the windows of the building opposite all start to mysteriously flicker at exactly 9:56pm. She begins to suspect that these occurrences are somehow linked to a series of suspicious deaths in the neighborhood.


APT is your standard Korean horror film - a good mix of suspense, plot intrigue, and supernatural jump-scares, topped off with a helluva lot of confusion. It seems that only Koreans really understand Korean films, then again, maybe it's just me. 

Anyways, it jumps right in with Se-jin and her rather lonely lifestyle. She speaks to her fellow employees when needed and otherwise goes home and spends her time by herself. One night she's followed into the subway station by a woman in a red dress. This woman stands next to Se-jin on the platform and asks her "Aren't you lonely?"

This woman in red then proceeds to leap in front of the train, but not before trying to take Se-jin with her. 

From this point on, Se-jin's life takes a rather spooky turn - she begins to notice flickering lights in the building across the way and it coincides with one resident committing suicide at 9:56 pm each night. Se-jin endeavors to solve the mystery and in doing so, befriends a wheelchair bound young lady from said building. 

But the more Se-jin involves herself in the unnatural suicides taking place, the more attention she garners from not only the police, but the entity behind the killings. And so unravels a very sad tale about a lonely young woman who died a year ago and her fellow tenants who first cared for her and then spurned her. 

I'll be honest, I cried a bit near the end. It was really freaking sad and just kind of made me lose hope for humanity in general. I would hope, sincerely hope, that the things this poor girl had to endure would never really happen to someone in the real world - but it's a silly hope. Because people are terrible and selfish. 

Anyways.....

I did enjoy this film even though I didn't really find it all that scary. But the character interactions and development plus the plot twists were entertaining enough. 

★★★☆☆