Manhole, Dragged into the Sewer

What a better place for a horror film than the sewer....literally.  Dark, damp, putrid, cavernous, rat infested, and psycho infested.  From South Korea, we take a look at 2014's "Manhole." Written and directed by Jae-Young Shin, this film is an ominous one with no humor or daylight.  For those who like their horror dark, literally and figuratively, this is a special one.

The backstory of our psycho (Kyung Ho Jung) is as frightening as what he puts his victims through, and we get a glimpse of it early on.  This fiend drags unsuspecting Koreans through manholes, and murders them.  Dozens of unsuspecting peeps turned corpses now occupy a pit in a city sewer.  Now our protagonists: the very pretty Yeon-seo (Yu-mi Jeong) is the guardian of her little sister, Soo-jeong (Sae-ron Kim).  Soo-jeong is deaf and the love the two sisters share is very moving.  While waking to the bus stop to meet her sister, Soo-jeong is grabbed by the monster.  The two girls have facetime on their phones, and Yeon-seo witnesses the abduction.  Unable to get the cops interested, the brave sister heads into the sewer, as well.

Our fiend kills his prey in various ways.  Sometimes he pummels them to death, other times he acts as a spider and...well...you'll see.  Also in the sewer are a disgraced cop (Dal-hwan Jo) and the dad of a previous victim (Duk-moon Choi).  Advantage killer, as this is his terrain.  But wait!  Soo-jeong is deaf. Might her ability to adapt and challenge adversity be in her favor?  Our killer always seems to have the advantage, but his new company in the sewer are determined.  Warning...this is not the feel good film of millennium. We desperately pull for the sisters to prevail, but the sewer seems as remote and dank as the chances of our heroines.

Will our sisters prevail?  What surprises will they encounter in their quest for escape? What other twists does our maniac utilize to menace these people? Bloody, exciting, lurid, and quite heartbreaking in places, "Manhole" is a terrific serial killer film. Available on Netflix, Asian horror fans will not want to miss this one.