Bloody Beach 2002 Horror Movie Review

At first glance “Bloody Beach” (“Haebyeoneuro gada “) looks like it might be a good bit of escapism slasher-horror.  A bunch of cute girls at the beach running around in bikinis and getting killed in new and interesting ways…hey, it’s a classic formula.


The only real twist on the formula is the premise of internet chat groups.  The kids of “Bloody Beach” are a member of one such chat group, dedicated to swapping advice on beach trips, and they decide to meet in real life for the first time by heading out together for a beach vacation.  Even though they are a cheery bunch, the group has something of a dark secret.  One group member, who went by the user name Sandmanz, committed suicide after being kicked out of the chatroom.  Or so everyone believes! 


One of the group (Min-sun Kim, from Memento Mori, in a brief cameo) never makes it to the gathering as she receives a mysterious email while on the train, as well as a knife to the throat.  The remaining members of the group think that she simply never showed up, and continue on their beach adventure.  One by one they receive the same email from the mysterious Sandmanz, and one by one they begin to disappear.  It soon becomes clear that Sandmanz is not as dead as everyone though, but is in fact one of the beach club themselves! Shocking!


Clearly, director In Soo Kim was attempting a home-grown version of popular films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream.  He even assembled a cast of popular fresh-faced Korean drama stars to participate, like Jae Hee, the heartthrob from “Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang” and Dong-kun Yang from “White Valentine.”


Due to Korean film standards “Bloody Beach” is a “clean” teen slasher flick.  That means no nudity and very little blood.  The girls do look nice in their bikinis, and there is one changing-room scene where they are in their underwear, but that is as far as it goes. Most of the “kills” happen off screen as well, which means you get a close up of a scared face, a quick shot of a flashing knife, and then a splash of blood from off-camera.


The subtitles on “Bloody Beach” are quite clunky as well, which doesn’t help the film.  It looks like the translator might be a non-native English speaker, as the phrases are awkward and the language is often far too formal for the situation.  Sometimes subtitles are off enough that they unintentionally create comedy, but here they are just…not right.


“Bloody Beach” was actually released in 2000, only a few years after those teen slasher flicks so the movie is not quite as late to the party as its 2010 US release would make it seem.  And maybe if I had seen “Bloody Beach” back then I might have enjoyed it more, but it is a little bit too late for that particular zeitgeist. 


With a short ninety-one minute runtime, “Bloody Beach” isn’t too much of an investment in time but there also just isn’t a lot here to recommend it.  Maybe if you are looking for a “clean” slasher/horror film it would be OK to show to thirteen-year olds you might give this a chance.  Otherwise there are far better films in the genre.


Oh, and a final note; The box cover for “Bloody Beach” has what looks like animation stills on it.  I had thought that maybe the film mixed animation with live-action, but that isn’t the case.  Really, I am not sure why the box cover has so much animation on it, but it doesn’t appear in the film.