R-Point

If you were to throw Saving Private Ryan and The Thing together, R-Point is what you would get. This Korean horror is very creepy in the way that old British ghost stories are creepy. It provides enough thrills and chills to keep you going until the somewhat average ending.

R-Point takes place during the Vietnam War. A group of soldiers is given the task of finding 18 of their compatriots who mysteriously went missing while passing through a place called Romeo Point, or R-Point for short. While searching the vast fields and grass-covered areas, the searchers are subjected to creepy visions of dead soldiers appearing before them and other things that go bump in the night.

A thick fog descends, halting their progress, when low and behold a mansion house appears out of nowhere. Seeking refuge inside, they are subjected once again to the terrors of the night and one by one are picked off by the ghosts. And just who is the mysterious woman who keeps turning up when the jingling of bells is heard...

...and I know you are asking, at this point, "But you said it was like The Thing." Well, I was coming to that. Near the end, we have a familiar scene when the soldiers are in the lobby, or some other huge room in the mansion, and they decide to test each other to see which one of them is not whom they appear to be.

It is one of the creepier movies that I have seen in a while and we are once again reminded that although the Korean and Japanese horror films are some of the very best around, there is still the problem of the ending. Watching the movie you can see that the filmmakers have put all their efforts into setting up the story, creating a genuinely eerie intro, bringing the soldiers to the spooky mansion and then ending it in a most uneventful way.