A Monstrous Corpse (1981)

Original title: Goeshi

Somewhere in rural South Korea. The experimental ultra-sonic emitter used by a group of scientists to “just” mass destroy vermin and insects (something that surely wouldn’t have any ecological repercussions) also happens to turn the dead into the living dead, who then proceed to break necks and drink the blood of the living. A Taiwanese ecologists who just happens to be in the area because of a nearby conference he’ll never get to and the woman he-met cute in an intensely awkward way are our best bet against the zombie menace, for the scientists responsible for the mess are as clueless about what’s going on as their idea of how experimentation works suggests, and the police is, as always in South Korean movies, good for carrying torches at best, always getting in the way as a matter of course.

I’d love to tell you who is playing anyone here, but the English language Internet isn’t exactly full of this kind of helpful information about Goeshi, and the relative dearth of movies from South Korea of these era that actually still exist makes it pretty impossible for me to recognize anyone by their faces. I can at least report that this was directed by Kang Beom-gu and is an – often rather close – remake of Jorge Grau’s wonderful The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue.

This isn’t as good as the Spanish movie, for the most part. Probably for reasons of personal survival for the filmmakers given the rather less than democratically open era in South Korea at the time, the film is toning the political elements of the original down rather a lot, so that the eco-political elements as well as the criticism on the corrupt nature of authority don’t quite disappear but do take on a rather less complicated and logical form. Though parts of this may very well have something to do with the less than ideal quality of the subtitles available for the film at hand which have their difficulties with expressing even simple things properly, and certainly won’t express any subtleties.

Having said this, even in the rather scratched and salmon-coloured version with some of the gore cut the Korean Film Archive got together (and put onto YouTube for all of our joy and education), this is still a very fun and often impressive looking film, though, with some sharp – for some perhaps to sharp - editing in the action scenes, clever blocking, some fine zombie acting, and – even visible in the dubious colour scheme of the print – some very moody use of gel-coloured light in the traditional colours of horror.

It is of course also interesting to compare the cultural shifts between the Spanish movie and the South Korean one, the way the zombies here have a clearly Asian vibe that makes them feel like siblings of our beloved hopping vampires (if anyone reading this can clue me in on how the Korean parallel creature which certainly must exist is called, I’ll be eternally, if no-prize style, grateful), how the ultra-sonic emitter bit turns more mad science-y, the difference in graveyard and morgue design. Never let anyone tell you horror movies won’t teach you anything.

But really, why am I even talking, seeing as the film is freely available – and perfectly legally at that.