Never fear J-Horror fans (or rather, get ready to fear!) because South Korean filmmaker Kim Soo-jin is happily keeping your favourite subgenre alive with his debut feature Noise. Like every golden era J-Horror classic, Noise features unstoppable pissed off ghosts that you can’t reason with, creepy creaky throat sounds (a must!), and unrelating scare sequences that’ll have you hiding under a blanket for safety. If it’s been a while since you’ve had a good scare, be ready for a non-stop NOPE fest with spooky sound design and supernatural baddies.
If you’ve ever lived with loud neighbours, you know all about the madness that Joo-young (Lee Sun-bin, Rampant) and her sister Joo-hee (Han Su-ah, Cheer Up) are dealing with in their crumbling apartment building. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill racket. The noise plaguing the residents of this high rise is driving people absolutely mad. Some even seem possessed by an evil spirit with an affinity for butcher knifes, and they all seem to be compelled to knock on the door of Joo-hee’s apartment late at night…
When Joo-young receives a distressing call from her sister’s employer after Joo-hee fails to show up for work, Joo-young with the help of Joo-hee‘s boyfriend Gi-hun (Kim Min-seok, Descendants of The Sun) launches into a hunt for her missing sister. Returning to the apartment that they once shared, Joo-young makes some startling discoveries that involve murder, more missing people, and menacing spirits that haunt the darkest corners of the apartment complex. In other words: A perfect set-up and setting for some not-safe-for-life J-Horror scares. And oh boy, does Noise know how to get under your skin.
Thankfully, because the movie is so focused on auditory frights, Noise crafts some crisp ‘n’ creepy foley & effects. Additionally, Joo-young is deaf so extra attention is paid to this area of the film, which makes every bump and scrape extra ominous. If you close your eyes during its scariest scenes, you’d swear the horrors were happening right there in your living room. It still falls into the same template as many other J-Horror classics but it’s easy to forget that you already know some of the twists and turns the story is bound to take with such bone-chilling scare sequences keeping you wide-eyed and terrified.
“Get ready for some bone-chilling scare sequences to keep you wide-eyed and terrified.”
Kim Soo-jin’s Noise celebrated its North American Premiere at the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival, and while you’re at it, let us know which J-Horror you think is the scariest movies ever made over in The Official Nightmare on Film Street Discord! Social Media is a Cesspool. Come Hang Out Where The Cool Creeps Are.
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