Asian horror is always a highlight at FrightFest, and this year was no different, with offerings from Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea among the top titles. After the latter blew the roof off with an opening night showing of Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony, the Land of the Morning Calm continued to deliver the scares with Salmokji: Whispering Water, the feature debut of Lee Sang-min.
Based on an urban legend surrounding ghostly goings-on at Yesan County’s Salmokji Reservoir, Salmokji follows a road-view filming crew led by saturnine director Su-in (Kim Hye-yoon), who are tasked with reshooting around a desolate body of water after a terrifying anomaly is spotted in one of the photos.
Anchored by a particularly strong cast that also includes Lee Jong-won (Brewing Love) and Kim Jun-han (The Drug King), with Jang Da-ah (Pyramid Game) demonstrating a natural flair for theatrics in her feature debut as horror-vlogging production assistant Se-jeong, Salmokji wastes no time in diving deep into folklore-inspired chills exacerbated by the isolated, rural countryside setting.
At a lean 90 minute runtime (almost unheard of for a South Korean genre movie), there’s little time to get bogged down in the specifics of the supernatural which may lead to more questions than answers, particularly from Western audiences who may be unfamiliar with Korean shamanistic practices also seen in recent titles Exhuma and The Wailing. While a crash course in Mu-ism isn’t necessary to understand Salmokji, a cursory post-watch research into some of the rites and rituals will only lead to a more comprehensive enjoyment of the themes at play.
While a little more meat on the bones of our central characters wouldn’t go amiss (especially with regards to the hinted lingering romantic animosity between Su-in and ex-boyfriend Ki-tae), Salmokji’s briskness ultimately serves to accelerate the pacing of scares which come thick and fast, especially as night falls on the filming crew and Lee leans into classic found-footage horror tropes akin to fellow South Korean horror hit Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. While nothing in Salmokji is particularly revolutionary, its peppering of well-placed jump scares in a dank, drizzly atmosphere makes it a perfect spooky season watch.
After going viral in South Korea, Salmokji is now officially the country’s highest-grossing horror film of all time, surpassing Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters, Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan, and Jung Bum-sik’s aforementioned Gonjiam by a large margin. Unfortunately, Salmokji’s scares don’t hold a candle to these classics, but it’s easy to see why this film is a hit; there’s a distinct edge of early Blumhouse here, reminiscent of when the horror giant was more concerned with making mid-budget crowd pleasers than bloated sequels that nobody asked for.
Salmokji: Whispering Water had its UK Premiere at FrightFest 2026 on Friday, August 28
