Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp

((summary taken from Asia Torrents))

  Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp / Gosa 2

Se-hee is haunted by her step sister Tae-yeon who used to be a promising swimmer but suddenly killed herself in a swimming pool 2 years ago. During the summer vacation, she joins the study camp at school for upcoming college entrance exam with other 30 elite students. On the first night, when Se-hee finds a riddling passage scribbled in the desk, she soon sees a dead girl’s body hung upside down. Then the TV monitors are on and the students watch another friend crushed by his bike in the corridor. Since then, the succession of cruel killings occurs whenever they fail to answer the given questions in time. Meanwhile, the hidden truth behind Tae-yeon’s suicide is slowly revealed and terrified students struggle to undo the puzzle before they become the next victim.

Download: Asia Torrents , Jdramas at Livejournal


My Rating:


While I'll admit to liking this Death Bell installment a bit more than the first, in many ways it still suffers from the same problems that plagued its predecessor: For one thing, there's nothing new here that hasn't been done before. The plot is tired and cliche, and once again takes a promising premise (brilliant kids racing against a clock to save their classmates) and reduces it to a predictable and disappointing revenge flick.

Sure, it's okay as far as revenge films go . . . but it's definitely no Kill Bill or Oldboy.

The problem, I think, is that this franchise has no idea how to make an intriguing villain. Rather than be original, they just keep combining and borrowing different elements from other genres: We get the angry, vengeful ghost, the evil slasher-killer, and the wronged human who's out for revenge. It's like forming a supreme killing machine with Jigsaw (Saw) The Bride (Kill Bill), and Samara (The Ring) . . . though Samara's function is just to look creepy.

In Death Bell, they have all the right ingredients . . . but they just won't put them together.

That's really the only thing preventing it from being brilliant instead of mediocre. Just give the ghost the power, make those kids actually play the game, and reveal the reasons for the test through their various puzzles and deaths. It'll heighten the tension, increase the scares, and make the mystery all the more compelling (there's a reason the best part of these movies are when the kids are banding together to solve a "test"). If they spent more time on those scenes, and less attention on flashbacks, cheap chills, and unnecessary character bonding and emoting, we'd all be a lot happier.

There's not much more to say about this film: If you've already seen Death Bell 1, then you should expect more of the same from its sequel. Look forward to a less confusing plot (even if it's still utterly ridiculous and far-fetched) and enjoy the idiotic separation of ghost and psycho.

Hopefully with the next sequel (and I'd bet money there will be many more of those to come) I get the Death Bell I've always dreamt of. :)

And if not, I'll pray it keeps improving bit-by-bit. Who knows, maybe next time I'll be able to give it a whopping four stars! *gasp*