• Source: Suddenly at Midnight

Suddenly at Midnight (Korean: 깊은밤 갑자기; RR: Gipeun bam, gapjagi; also known as Suddenly in the Dark or Suddenly in Dark Night) is a 1981 South Korean erotic horror thriller film directed by Ko Young-nam.




Plot


Kang Yu-jin, a wealthy biology professor doing a butterfly field study, takes in a new housemaid; the young woman, Mi-ok, is the daughter of a shaman priestess who recently died in a house fire. At first, Yu-jin and his wife, Seon-hee, welcome Mi-ok into their home, but Seon-hee begins to have misgivings when she sees a strange wooden doll that the maid has brought with her. Having suffered from nightmares about exactly the same doll, Seon-hee becomes increasingly suspicious and paranoid that Mi-ok is trying to kill her and usurp her household. In a sudden fit of madness, Seon-hee causes Mi-ok to fall to her death. From then on, Seon-hee is tormented horribly by visions of the doll attacking her and it starts to take a great toll on her sanity. Is it actually happening or just all in the girl's mind?




Cast


Kim Young-ae ... Seon-hee
Yoon Il-bong ... Kang Yu-jin
Lee Ki-seon ... Mi-ok
Hyun Hye-ri
Kim Geun-hie
Kim Min-gyu
Kim Gi-jong
Lee Yae-sung
Gwak Geon
Yoo Myeong-sun




Release


Suddenly at Midnight was released in South Korea on 17 July 1981, and received a total of 28,178 admissions. It was then subsequently released on Blu-ray for the first time ever worldwide in early 2017 by Mondo Macabro.




Critical response


The movie and Ko Young-nam are referred to as a classic work and director of Korean horror film. In a review for Koreanfilm.org, Darcy Paquet cited Suddenly at Midnight as a rare example of 1970s-80s Korean horror that was genuinely frightening, describing it as "a mysterious psychological study... that beguiles the viewer right up to its bizarre closing image." He praised the film's direction, saying, "Ko has a good feel for how to create tension from precise editing and the patient accumulation of evocative details", and also credited actress Kim Young-ae for a "convincing performance as the panicked wife".




References






External links


Suddenly at Midnight at IMDb
Suddenly at Midnight at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Kim Young-ae
• Brooke Shields
• Frank Faylen
• Rick Rubin
• Lam Suet
• Daftar film bertema lesbian, gay, biseksual dan transgender
• David Carradine
• Akiba Maid War
• Stanley Blystone
• Kiss×sis
• Suddenly at Midnight
• List of horror films of 1981
• Kim Young-ae
• Midnight Cowboy
• Midnight Mass (miniseries)
• 2020 in film
• Korean horror
• List of Korean-language films
• Horror films of Asia
• Midnight Sun (2018 film)