Tastes of Horror – Movie Review (4/5)

TASTES OF HORROR is a new South Korean horror anthology (org. title: Goe-dam-man-chan). Lots of really disturbing and amazing horror shorts. Not any real misses, but several hard hits. Read our full Tastes of Horror movie review here!

TASTES OF HORROR is a new horror anthology from South Korea (org. title: Goe-dam-man-chan). Or as it’s officially described, this is “an omnibus-style film” made by five different directors. And yes, the stories differ wildly but work as a whole.

Whatever you want to call it, this offers a lot of really amazing horror shorts. The kind that manages to build up a whole little world within minutes, and then have it crash down on both its characters and us viewers. It’s pretty awesome!

Continue reading our Tastes of Horror movie review below. Out digitally from June 25, 2024.

The six horror shorts in Tastes of Horror

The short films in this horror collection are very different, but somehow feel like they belong together. Here are some brief descriptions of each short film in Tastes of Horror.

“Four-legged Beast”

A girl struggling to ace her tests is constantly punished by her mother. Then she sees a ghost that tells her she needs to kill a four-legged animal and she will do better in school. Let’s suffice to say that things spiral out of control.

“Ding Dong Challenge”

This story depicts high school girls trying out a bizarre dance ritual that supposedly grants them their wishes if they succeed. A take on the various TikTok challenges, but with a supernatural twist that has a Ringu vibe to it.

“Resident-only Fitness Center”

In an apartment building, a 24-hour fitness center closes early to save money on utilities. This leads to an accident which in turn leads to the fitness center being haunted. Good luck to the residents who attempt to work out late at night.

“Rehabilitation”

An emergency rescue worker, Ji Yeon, wakes up trapped in a secret and mysterious room. She was injured during a rescue operation where she appeared to lose her legs. This will likely confuse you at first, but the ending explains everything.

“Jackpot”

See what happens when people stay at a cheap motel after losing all their money. Or rather, what happens when a greedy winner arrives with his jackpot in a sports bag as this is the main story. Being greedy and paranoid can be good… or deadly!

“Gluttony”

As soon as I saw this title, I knew we’d be going down the mukbang rabbit hole – and I was not disappointed. A famous mukbang Youtuber (or “YouTrip” in this short despite using Google to search later) calls out a fellow eater during a live show.

Later, this competitor will make a comeback and challenge her in a mukbang challenge to end all mukbang challenges. It’s live, it’s wild, and it has a stellar final moment!

A deliciously creepy collection

The stories in this anthology aren’t connected, but it still feels like they belong together in this one movie. Not least due to all of them having a very disturbing vibe and some strong reveals (or plot twists) at the end.

More than one of these could be made into a feature film, while others are simply perfect in this short film format. Either way, you can expect to enjoy them all and just need to look forward to discovering which is your favorite.

The movie has a runtime of approximately 118 minutes, so it’s the length of a feature film. Also, it didn’t feel long, so I was almost sad when it was over.

Watch Tastes of Horror on Digital now!

The Tastes of Horror collection of short films comes from five acclaimed South Korean directors. They are Sang-hoon Ahn, Johnny Chae [as Chae Yeojoon], Yoon Een-Kyoung, Yong-gyun Kim & Dae-wung Lim.

Together, they created one intriguing and disturbing movie from their respective short films.

Usually, there are hits and misses with any anthology. However, every now and then, you can get an anthology (or omnibus-style movie, if you will) where everything works. Sure, I like some of the shorts more than others, but none are bad.

Instead, some are really awesome, which (by comparison) makes others seem subpar. Still, even those I liked the least are better than what we see in many other anthologies. My point is simply this: If you like horror, be sure to watch this one!

Tastes of Horror (org. title: Goe-dam-man-chan) is out on Digital from June 25, 2024.

Details

Directors: Ahn Sang-hoon, Yoon Een-Kyoung, Kim Yong-gyun, Lim Dae-woong, Chae Yeo-jun
Stars: Chang Seung-yeon, Oh Seung-hee, Jang Ye-eun, Shin Eun-soo, Kim Ho-jung, Kim Tae-hun, Jo Jae-yun, Yoon Hyun-min, Jang Gwang, Son Jina, Lee Joo-young, Kim Joo-ryong, Choi Su-im, Park Jin-a