Whispering Corridors

Something is stalking the corridors of a girls’ high school in Park Ki-hyung’s chilling box-office hit, the film that revived South Korean horror.

At Jookran High School for Girls, homeroom teacher Mrs Park is nicknamed ‘Old Fox’ for her sadistic teaching methods. She makes a chilling phone call to Hur Eun-young, her former student and newest colleague. Her warning: a dead girl named Jin-ju is still attending school.

Moments later, an unknown figure strangles Mrs Park with a noose. Three students starting their final year find her body: talented, superstitious artist Lim Ji-oh; timid outsider Yoon Jae-yi; and sullen, unpopular Kim Jung-sook. As Ji-oh and Jae-yi paint together in a storage room rumoured to be haunted, something in the corridors begins claiming more victims.

Curator’s note

A massive hit in its home country, Whispering Corridors connected with local audiences through its thinly veiled indictment of South Korea’s authoritarian education system and its candid view of teenage mental health and bullying.

Released the same year as Japan’s Ring, the film also features a cyclical curse and a malevolent spirit that won't rest until justice is served.

Whispering Corridors launched an enduring franchise of six films and revived South Korean horror, which had waned since its first peak not long after the end of the Korean War.