Absolute Horror Wiki
Advertisement
Nightmare film poster

Nightmare (Korean: 가위; RR: Gawi; lit. "Scissors", also known as Horror Game Movie; released in the Philippines as Gawi: The Nightmare) is a South Korean horror film, released in 2000. It stars Kim Gyu-ri, Ha Ji-won and Choi Jung-yoon, and was directed and written by Ahn Byeong-ki, who also later directed Phone (2002), Bunshinsaba (2004) and APT (2006) The film was the 6th best selling film of 2000 with 322,000 admissions in Seoul after 5 weeks of screening.

Plot[]

After their college graduation, a clique of six friends went separate ways. Sun-ae moves to the United States. Hye-jin pursues her tertiary education in psychology. Hyun-jun, due to an injury to his knee, is unable to keep playing sports and is stuck working in a scrapyard. Se-hoon opens an art studio. Jung-wook works as a lawyer and is married, but has an affair with Mi-ryeong, who is now an actress.

After a few years, Sun-ae returns home and tells Hye-jin she was being pursued by the supposedly deceased Kyung-ah. Hye-jin visits Se-hoon, who is haunted by dreams of a woman whose face he can't remember. Hye-jin herself begins having visions of Kyung-ah.

Back when they were in college, Hye-jin befriended a girl named Eun-ju. Members of the clique began experiencing strange accidents. Sun-ae exposed Eun-ju's true identity as Kyung-ah, a girl from Sun-ae and Hye-jin's past. Kyung-ah was rumoured to be a "possessed" child who spread deaths and misfortune. One of the casualties was Hye-jin's father. Hye-jin told Eun-ju to stay away from her. That night, Hye-jin witnessed Eun-ju committing suicide.

Kyung-ah kills Se-hoon. Hye-jin calls the rest of the group and Jung-wook claims Sun-ae blamed herself for causing Kyung-ah's death, and reveals she went to the U.S. to seek mental treatment, not education. Desperate to escape his job, Hyun-jun blackmails Jung-wook into becoming his lawyer. He hands over a tape showing Jung-wook and Mi-ryeong having sex, recorded by Se-hoon, who had a habit of recording people. Se-hoon also recorded Kyung-ah's death. Hyun-jun is killed next. Hye-jin angrily asks Sun-ae her why Kyung-ah is going after them. Kyung-ah appears, visible only to Sun-ae, who runs away.

After almost being drowned by Kyung-ah, Mi-ryeong begs Jung-wook to stay with her, but he refuses. She breaks up with Jung-wook and is found dead in her bathroom. Hye-jin finds Se-hoon's video tape and learns what happened the night Kyung-ah died. After Hye-jin left, an altercation ensued, triggered by Kyung-ah's cat attacking Jung-wook and him trying to kill it. In the confusion, Hyun-jun fell and broke his leg, and Kyung-ah also fell and passed out from a head injury. To protect themselves, the five decided to fake Kyung-ah's suicide and push her body off a building. Kyung-ah woke up but Jung-wook killed her anyway.

Jung-wook breaks into Hye-jin's apartment to find the video tape, but Sun-ae attacks him. He chases her to the same building Kyung-ah died. Fixated on protecting his career, he attempts to kill Hye-jin and Sun-ae to cover up the truth. Sun-ae impales him with a metal rod, killing him.

Some time later, Sun-ae and Hye-jin meet. Kyung-ah appears, this time visible to Hye-jin as well, and kills Sun-ae so that the two of them can finally be together.

Advertisement