1981 | 100 MIN | Horror, Crime, Thriller

DIRECTOR GO Yeong-nam

CAST KIM Young-ae, LEE Ki-seon, YOON Il-bong

RELEASE DATE July 17, 1981

CONTACT Korean Film Archive

Tel +82 2 3153 2001 

Fax +82 2 3153 2080 

Email kofa@koreafilm.or.kr

For rabid genre film fans at the turn of the millennium, K-horror quickly cemented itself as a buzzword for an innovative, terrifying and often gruesome new breed of horror features being produced in the booming Korean film market. Yet whereas the contemporaneous J-horror trend was built on a documented history of classic Japanese horror films and folk tales, the Korean variant felt like it had emerged out of nowhere.

Twenty years ago, international viewers were new to Korean cinema, and few had had an opportunity to investigate the industry’s yesteryear output. Yet some classic films had endured and carved out reputations for themselves. Among those were works championing Korea’s cultural heritage and many were staid literary adaptations, but relatively few could be classified as genre films. The one film that stood out was KIM Ki-young’s quasi-genre film The Housemaid (1960), with the occasional mention of LEE Man-hee’s The Devil’s Stairway (1964). After that, there was a long gap until the first Whispering Corridors in 1998.

Of course, historical records can be incomplete and gatekeepers myopic and as genre cinema has entered the mainstream and films in the cannon have been reevaluated, several earlier Korean horror works have started to receive their dues. Few among them are as unique, frightening and powerful as GO Yeong-nam’s incendiary and psychedelic psycho-horror masterpiece Suddenly in Dark Night (1981).

Kang Yu-jin (YOON Il-bong), a leading figure in the field of biology, is out collecting butterflies when he happens upon an especially rare breed that he brings home. He lives in the countryside with his doting wife Sun-hi (KIM Young-ae) but one day he returns from a trip with a new housemaid, a young woman named Mi-ok (LEE Ki-seon). Mi-ok is the daughter of a shaman and before long her presence in the household begins to upset Sun-hi. Sun-hi is particularly troubled by a wooden doll that Mi-ok has brought with her, and she begins to have nightmares featuring the doll. Soon, she becomes paranoid that Mi-ok is trying to kill her and take over the household.

Suddenly in Dark Night (sometimes knowns as Suddenly in Dark Night) may date from the early 1980s, but it took about 30 years for it to be rediscovered and appreciated. Like The Housemaid before it, the film focuses on sexual and social tensions that arise in a bourgeois household. What sets it apart from KIM Ki-young’s masterpiece is a different type of stylistic control that creates an atmosphere of febrile sexuality and pounding tension. Director GO Yeong-nam employs eye-catching set and costume design and kaleidoscope visual ticks as the film barrels towards an incandescent and horrific climax.

These days, Director GO’s claim to fame is his title as the most prolific Korean filmmaker of all time, with 111 feature films to his name. While similarly prolific filmmakers like KIM Soo-yong and IM Kwon-taek signed their names to many undisputed classics of Korean cinema, GO Yeong-nam’s name crops up far less frequently. Suddenly in Dark Night, with its precise staging, confident technique and building tension, suggests that his extensive body of work deserves a fresh appreciation if only to unearth a handful of other gems like this one.

The film is also notable for its gripping central performance from the later KIM Young-ae, known for modern audiences through films such as The Attorney (2013) and Pandora (2016), her final work before her untimely passing from cancer in 2016.