Search - Hidden Floor on DVD

An innocent single mother and her cute daughter move into a

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 03/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Hidden Floor" is the fourth and final in the "K-Horror" series released by Pathfinder Pictures. The "K-Horror" series was produced by Ahn Byung Ki (Phone) in order to bring some life and new blood to Korea's horror film genre. Each story is done by a different director adapting the short story works of writer Yoo Il Han, and concentrates on a different subtext of the horror genre.

The Haunted Apartment is the theme for "Hidden Floor" (think Dark Water, Apartment 1303) focusing on a single woman and her daughter moving into a new apartment with some uninvited neighbors. Director Il-soon Kwon makes his directorial debut here as does Yoo-jung Kim, playing the "incredibly cute but incredibly creepy" little girl required by this type of story.

The "Hidden Floor" of the title refers to a mysterious fourth floor of the new apartment building, one that cannot be reached by the elevator. The number "four" is similar to the word for "death," and so the fourth floor of the building has been skipped the way the Thirteenth Floor might be skipped in Western buildings. The mother, Chae Min-Young, chose the apartment because it is closer to her work, and she is finding herself constantly struggling between the demands of her job and the demands of raising her daughter.

At first she leaves the daughter alone for long hours when she goes to work, but she begins to be troubled by her daughters increasingly strange behaviors and so hires a babysitter. Trouble brews when a series of deaths, supposedly by accident, occurs in the building and the babysitter quits abruptly unable to tolerate the daughter's strangeness. Issues are compounded by a drug-addicted downstairs neighbor who constantly complains about the nighttime noises coming from above even though the mother and child are sleeping. Soon, it becomes apparent that something is living on the missing fourth floor, something buried in the past of the building.

While not as effective as My Bloody Roommates, "Hidden Floor" plays with the genre stereotypes well, and provides some chills and scares and shocks. Because I have seen this type of film many times, I know the basic storyline but even so director Yoo Il Han caught me a few times. There is a great scene when the little child is being strangled to death, and...I won't spoil it for you!
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