Cadaver

Not to be confused with the not so well received 2006 Thai horror film of the same name, Cadaver (aka The Cut, Anonymous Blood) is a South Korean Horror/Mystery/ghost film set in a medical school morgue. Cadaver follows six medical students who are also (for the most part) a group of friends that together are attending their first autopsy class, where each group of students is assigned a body to work on, dissect and examine for a grade. The body that they end up having to work on is an attractive woman with a rose tattoo on her chest and a huge heart surgery scar right down the middle of her torso. Soon after the students work on the corpse, they find themselves haunted by the vengeful female Cadaver and being killed off one by one in the school autopsy room by a mysterious one-eyed man with a limp, leaving the victims with a surgical scar similar to the one on the rose tattooed female corpse. The students of course try to figure out exactly why this is all happening to them and the mystery solving begins. Exactly who is this one-eyed dude with the pimp walk, and how does he tie in with the student deaths and also how does the heart surgery scarred, rose tattooed dead girl fit into the whole equation.

I've seen and enjoyed a good number of Asian horror films over the years and after the whole Japanese driven horror/ghost story explosion from earlier in the decade, it all got a little old, stale and repetitive with the originality running dry with the quickness. Cadaver has elements similar to films of that ilk with it being a ghost story with a mystery to solve with the need to possibly resolve a broken past before the students are all knocked off. But even with story elements similar to those movies, Cadaver does every thing right and has a very good, complex story that is far from sigh inducing, but I won't go into many more plot details since I would rather you find out for yourself without the possibility of figuring anything out from my words written here. I will however, bring up the recurring theme of Necrophilia in Cadaver that adds an interesting arch for some of the films characters. At times though, Cadaver is a little confusing, but all the pieces fall into place by the films end and there are a few nice surprises that would most certainly invoke some debate as to exactly what happens in the film.


The group of students are very typical of an American horror film with stereotypical characters (slut, dork, cool guy etc..) that are all different from each other and makes you wonder why their friends in the first place. I guess being students together may be their bond and the characteristics aren't as overbearing as they usually are in some horror films made in the U.S. so it's not a glaring issue, more one to mention for its existence. The acting is very good from all of the students and the few elders they deal with, though some of the dialogue felt a little off at times. Chances are that the off dialogue is caused by Korean to English translation (or me being mad tired), it isn't bad or anything, I just had to read extra hard at times to understand what was happening.

As for how Cadaver is in a technical aspect, I will say almost right from the first five minutes of the movie, I knew I was probably in for a very well made film with some of that signature South Korean film making flare and skill. Director, Son Tae-woong starts the film off with a cool P.O.V. shot scene, that turns out to be the point of view of a cadaver, then some really cool camerawork that frantically flows through hallways and goes up a few flights of stairs with a slight fish eyed lens shot from high and low. It looked really cool and reminded me of that awesome beginning form the Tales from the Crypt TV series. I was even happier to find out that technically, Cadaver is a great film throughout, the Seong Seung-taek cinematography is fantastic from start to finish, with a plethora of techniques used effectively and a few surprisingly beautiful moments during unexpected times throughout the movie. This great film making also goes hand in hand with the next topic I will touch upon.

Now, Cadaver is very obviously a horror movie and of course, you would want to know if it's a scary film or not. There could have been a tiny bit more of the scary stuff in Cadaver, it has a (very) little mystery solving downtime that slows the film down and would have been prime opportunity to toss in another scare. Even with that said, when the scary scenes do happen, they are phenomenally done and they all tie into the great technical aspects that I mention just a moment ago. It would be obvious that a film focused on dead bodies and morgues, morgues would be your main place of terror. With amazing use of lighting, pacing, music, and perfectly applied tension, the scenes are very frightening and intense. What stood out for me most was the use of sound and how effective and distinctive it was, especially the autopsy tables that are moved around in the brilliantly lit room with a horrendous screeching sound that caused havoc on my eardrums…in a good way of course. Something else I found to be quite effective is when the first victim is "taken out," he/she makes a cell phone call and the death itself is recorded on to a voicemail of one of the other students. Later on, this recording is used effectively to fuck with the rest of the gang, playing back at opportune moments adding to the unease and fear of the remaining students.

If you love, like, or are even just a casual fan of Asian horror films, then Cadaver is a must see. I would have to see it again before saying it’s at the top with some of the other well-known classic Asian horror stories, but it is definitely in the league with those big dogs and I really enjoyed the film for everything it does right. Cadaver avoids feeling like "another Asian ghost story" and even with the cell phone recorded deaths, they are used as a tool of fear, instead of a tool of death, as is the case with a lot of the films from this genre…for example: watch a video, die. Answer a phone call, die.

In a nutshell, Cadaver is a great little ghost story that is a little more than just that, with some great scenes that really deliver on the scares and the films overall sense of dread. It's superbly made with skillful execution that shows care for the technical details that puts Cadaver a step above the rest of the Asian retreads. While it worked for me, some may have issue with the story because it's just one of those stories that either alienates people, or wins them over. Same may go for the characters as they aren't very fleshed out to start, but I felt by the end of the film that they were fleshed out before my very eyes during the run of the movie with interesting facts and character arcs sprinkled throughout Cadaver.

Cadaver will soon be making its U.S. debut courtesy of IFC on May 20th and if you are interested in checking out Cadaver for yourself, you can do so in the IFC Festival Direct section of there On-demand service. I encourage you to give this film a watch and even more so, encourage you to let me know your take on the film…hopefully you'll like it as much as I did!