GHOST TRAIN (2024)

New On Demand from Well Go USA!
Directed by Se-woong Tak.
Written by Jo Ba-Reun.
Check out the trailer here!!

A young YouTube influencer Da-kyeong (Joo Hyun-young) runs a channel focused on true horror stories. After hearing about strange occurrences happening at the Gwanglim subway station, she seeks out Station Manager (Jeon Bae-soo) and bribes him to tell her ghost stories with liquor. He begrudgingly complies and tells Da-kyeong a quartet of tales. But as her YouTube channel gets more popular, Da-kyeong needs more stories to maintain her popularity, forcing her to dive deeper into the hauntings, endangering herself in the process.

At the heart of this collection of ghost stories is a moral tale that the YouTube influencer culture is made up of the worst of humanity. I know that might be ironic coming from a guy who posts reviews on YouTube, but I absolutely hate the vanity of YouTube culture. I’m sure if I put my ugly mug on camera and post thumbnails with me frowning or smiling or acting shocked, I might get a few more likes or subscribers, but that’s not why I do this. If my thoughts are appreciated by a small, core group of people, that’s fine by me. Of course, I’d love to have more viewers, so “Like and Subscribe!” But it’s not the reason why I do this. But for Da-kyeong, getting more YouTube famous is her life. It seems she works in some content farm in South Korea that strives on clicks, likes, and follows, so I guess that is the incentive, but above and beyond, Da-kyeong strives to be seen by more people. The reason I’m highlighting this first is because it is an awesome story and the wraparound in anthologies are usually horrible or barely present. So seeing so much thought put into the glue that holds these stories together not only makes for an interesting story in itself, but it is also going above and beyond what most anthologies do.

The thing about GHOST TRAIN is that this wraparound is the main story and most of the attention is given to Da-kyeong’s descent into vanity as she goes from a nebbish shrew to a done up vixen as he channel grows in popularity. And while there is another character doing beauty videos who Da-kyeong is jealous of, the more popular she gets, the more like that vapid beauty content maker she becomes. It’s a fun moral story in itself, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg to talk about in GHOST TRAIN.

While each of the four stories are short, or at least go by at a rapid pace, each one has rock solid scares. Story one focuses on a young hipster dude dozing on a subway who notices a young woman banging her head on the glass. Having ridden on Chicago’s multiple train systems, I’ve seen plenty of things, and the way this guy responds is pretty much the way I would. He moves to another train car. But the woman shows up again, resulting in a terrifying chase through the train cars. This was fast paced with some terrifying imagery, BUT the problem is that it is pretty much the same premise as the second story, where a young woman who is concerned about her looks is pursued by a bandaged woman with a cup of acid through the subway. While the first short was effective, this second one was downright bone-rattling as the short does a fantastic job of communicating the sheer terror of this situation. From the slow way the threat is introduced, to the scene of the acid burning the floor as it drips from the mug, to the rampant chase through the subway, this second story was the highlight of the film for me.

The next story is about a homeless man who finds a red coin that buys him a red can from a red soda machine. When the can is opened, it seems like it’s empty, but soon, someone around him disappears into a pile of clothes, leaving more coins behind. The segment goes on to be sort of like a real-life game of Mario Brothers, as the homeless man collects coins to continue to get the clothes and belongings of those he disintegrates. This one stands out simply because the concept alone is so bonkers.

Finally, the vain beauty YouTuber mentioned earlier is the star of the fourth story. She reaches for a dangling handle in a train car and in it is some kind of phlegmy substance. Soon, her hand starts breaking out and in the tradition of CREEPSHOW’s Jordy Verrill, the rash continues to grow no matter what the young woman does. Since, this is a beauty YouTuber, the importance of her looks are held above all else, so this hits her exponentially harder and teaches yet another moral lesson about vanity that echoes the one being experienced by our main protagonist Da-kyeong. While predictable, it was fun seeing this shallow person get her come-uppance.

The film concludes with Da-kyeong being lured into the subway to experience firsthand what the hauntings are all about. While it is repetitive, as it basically is a person seeing something weird in the train, then moving to another car, only to have that threat follow—much like the first two tales, because we’ve come to like this lead, it hits a bit harder.

GHOST TRAIN is guilty of repeating the same sort of premise a few times, but it delivers on some absolutely terrifying chase sequences reflective of the worst nightmares of commuters everywhere. If you’ve even been on a bus, on a train, or even sharing a flight with someone, you’ll identify with the horrors this excellent Korean anthology conveys.