Salmokji - Whispering Water

Water Way To Go

Salmokji - Whispering Water
Directed by Lee Sang Min
south Korea 2026
28th August 2026 Screening at FrightFest

Okay, so after the somewhat brilliant movie Nervous (reviewed here) I returned to FrightFest the next morning for my second of this year’s films, Salmokji - Whispering Water. Which looked pretty fantastic and grossed about a gazillion pounds in its home country, knocking Project Hail Mary (still haven’t seen that) off of the top spot.

Now then, it would be true to say that this movie was mostly what I expected it to be but, sadly, not nearly as much as I’d hoped it would be.

The film starts with the brilliant premise that a road route to and in a remote forest area away from the city has had the images replaced with a ghost head staring out of the big lake. The company responsible for shooting the films and stills delete the offending image but are hit with an ultimatum by their client that new footage needs to be up by the end of the day (which, makes no sense to me because... why would you not have a back up anyway) so a new team has to go and film it.

The last team are missing and with the former director on sick leave after his experience there but, they all go down to the place and, one of the innovations of the film, if you want to call it that, is the sped up journey of the van spherised and shrunk down to a moving globe of passing footage at the centre of the screen (look, that’s the best way I can think of describing the effect… go see it if you want to see what I’m talking about).

Of course, when the crew and their producer Su In, played by Lim Hye-yoon, get there, things of an uncanny and definitely spooky nature, all focused around the lake, start to happen. And then the producer who is ill turns up and, if that doesn’t strike up a warning alarm in your brain, then you probably will quite enjoy this one. Of course, before you can say Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water (and if you get that reference you’re probably pretty old), all watery hell breaks loose and, as many a young lady could tell you, there’s nothing light hearted about your waters breaking.

Okay, so someone whose opinion I admire greatly was exiting the screening as I left and so I asked him what he thought. His response was that it’s clichéd and, yeah, I think he really hit the nail on the head for this one (thanks Jason).

And that’s a big problem for this film, which has quite a good opening premise but then starts to very quickly pile on the expected tropes for this kind of movie. And then repeats them… and then overplays them for the rest of the movie. The problem is, for instance, that once you realise the lake can masquerade as anything plus any safe space in or out of the area… there’s not much point in rooting for any of the characters. Everyone is doomed and, I’ll charitably allow the filmmakers (who have made a pile of money out of this thing, don’t forget), that this is the main reason why the film just isn’t very scary and none of the jump scares really work either.

Honestly, Salmokji - Whispering Water plays like a very tedious, young-teen minded film and so, yeah, this reviewer is many decades removed from the target audience but, I do find it infuriating that a film which is as well lensed as this one kind of shoots itself in the foot by doing exactly what is expected of it, rather than deviating and taking a more interesting route. This one just wasn’t my cup of tea, it’s sad to say.