Lingering (2020)

 

Streaming Services: Shudder

Movie Name/Year: Lingering (2020)
Genre: Horror
Length: 101 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Indiestory Incorporation
Director: Yoon Een-Kyoung
Writer: Yoon Een-Kyoung
Actors: Se-yeong Lee, Ji-Young Park, So-yi Park, Yeong-ju Seo, Su-ji Jeon, Ju-won Lee
 
Blurb from IMDb: When Yoo-mi searches out her mother's friend at a hotel to drop off her younger sister, she falls into unexpected mystery and horror.

Cat’s Point of View:
 
Lingering was a rather apt name for this particular movie. The film offered examples of the definition within the story as well as the fact that it just seemed to drag on forever – just plodding through the timeframe. I felt every minute pass. 

I have to be honest. There wasn’t much that I enjoyed about this production. I thought the hotel was interesting as a piece of architecture, and its interior had delightfully elaborate appointments; but beyond that, everything else seemed to be a jumbled mess.

 
One thing that Lingering got right, perhaps, was the ever-present sense of dread that permeated the film. Everything was so dark, in a literal lighting sense, for the majority of the film. It was a clever setup to play on our inherent distrust of darkness for the potential of concealing dangerous things. The occasional glimpse of subtle scares peeking out from the shadows kept me guessing as to what would pop out next, if anything, and when.

 
This film ran on fueling the anticipation for the scares rather than delivering full-fledged experiences – the latter being few and far between. I felt like it never really delivered what it kept promising.
 
I had a little bit of trouble suspending my disbelief on a few plot points both with some of the characters in the story and some of the setting. Though, overall, the story just seemed confused with the direction it really wanted to stick with.
 
Lingering had great potential for both the psychological and supernatural aspects of the horror within its story – I just think something likely was lost in translation. It’s likely that an audience more familiar with the Korean culture might get more out of this experience. There were also a few points that ambient whispers within scenes were not translated by the subtitles. I can’t help but wonder if I missed key clues that might have helped glue the story together if I’d understood them.
 
Unfortunately, it boiled down to a rather unenjoyable experience for me. I can’t see myself offering this title as a recommendation in the future. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score –None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 5.1/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 1.5/5
 
Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating – R
 
Movie Trailer: