[Fantasia International Film Festival Review]: Noise

Having had its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, the feature directorial debut of Kim Soo-jin Noise is an overwhelming supernatural attack on the senses.

The paranormal mystery film hailing from South Korea centers itself on Joo-young (Lee Sun-bin), a deaf woman who, after moving into a brand new apartment with her younger sibling Joo-hee (Han Su-a) in order to start a new life, discovers her sister is missing after Joo-hee began to complain about a constant noise coming from the apartment above. Along with Joo-hee’s boyfriend, Ki-hoon (Kim Min-seok), Joo-young must uncover the origin of the unusual and disconcerting noises in order to find the whereabouts of her missing sister, all the while avoiding the creepy and angry neighbour from downstairs who keeps complaining about the noise the sisters’ supposedly make. 

With a creeping sense of unease, Noise envelops its audience in a world where we experience noise similar to that of lead character Joo-young depending on if she wears a hearing device or not. When the sound design is loud, repetitive and with an unknown source, it creates an extreme feeling of discomfort, making it one of the film’s greatest strengths. 

The story very much follows the tried and tested formula of a traditional ghost story, similar to that of a gothic haunted house. The things that go bump in the night are not always the things you have to be afraid of, sometimes it's the living you should fear. Unfortunately the story begins to become muddied once the mystery is revealed, not quite sticking the surprise landing. However, if viewers are looking for an easy enough, digestible ghost horror story, then Noise provides just that. 

3.5 Screams out of 5