Fantasia Film Festival 2025 – Most of us have heard creepy sounds in our home at some point. Noise takes that concept to the next level, following a young woman with a hearing impediment whose sister disappeared. The uncanny sounds worsen, creating a generally unsettling feature that’s a solid entry into Korean horror cinema.
Directed by Kim Soo-jin, the film stars Lee Sun-bin as Joo-young, who’s reeling over the fate of her sister, Ju-hee (Han Soo-a). The two shared an apartment together, and like Ju-hee, Joo-young starts to hear strange noises whenever her hearing aids are in. The noises include garbled phone calls, a baby’s cries, and other hair-raising sounds. The more that Joo-young tries to figure out what happened to her sister, the worse the noises become.
Joo-young also deals with an irate neighbor who lives below her and claims that he can constantly hear her at night, even though she’s mostly quiet. The tension between the two escalates, and the neighbor becomes an all-out menacing presence, wielding a knife at one point. The few sequences when the man comes to the door and threatens Joo-young are some of the creepiest moments in the film. It’s clear that something more sinister haunts the large apartment complex. Joo-young learns, through her interactions with other neighbors, that various people died in the complex, including in Joo-young’s unit. A woman hanged herself there.
Sun-bin does a really great job in the lead role, portraying her character’s desperation to find and save her sister, even as neighbors start to label her crazy and overly emotional. Sun-bin gives a harrowing performance that makes viewers feel for her character’s plight. She also toughens up and does her best to save the day, especially in the last act.
The film also functions as a ghost story, and in time, it becomes clear that not one, but multiple spirits haunt the apartment complex and have an eerie, possessing effect on some of the tenants, like Joo-young’s neighbor below. A few sequences show corpses that are as spooky as some of the noises. Yet, these sequences are never overdone and feel restrained, all for the better. The massive apartment complex also very much feels like a character, filled with secrets and histories of grisly deaths. There’s even a stinking trash heap in the basement that management tries to cover up. Soo-jin also has a fondness for zooming in and showing tight shots of a character’s face or eyeballs when they’re fear-struck. It’s not overdone and underscores the terror and sense of dread that permeates the film.
The film’s main flaw has to do with the last act, a twist that comes before the final twist. After everything that Joo-young endures, the second to last twist and reveal just feels like a bit of a letdown. That said, the film’s final moments are incredibly effective and keep more in tone with the earlier half of the movie.
Noise is certainly an entertaining Korean horror movie with some genuinely frightening moments. The movie succeeds at building and maintaining a sense of dread. Though the feature falters a bit as it creeps towards its conclusion, it’s still a solid watch.
