Documentary and fiction films seem to have nothing in common and actually look totally different in the way they depict reality. But independent filmmaker Yun Jun-hyung combines the two formats to create an incredibly powerful way of making a horror film.
"I wanted to make a film that could be enjoyed by as many people as possible", Yun said during an interview with The Korea Times on Friday. "But with the 30 million won or so I managed to collect, there weren't many things that I was able to do like other commercial films, and the format of a documentary film was the most efficient way we could come up with to make a horror film".
"Mokdugi Video" is a ghost story, but is filmed as if it were a documentary, giving it a realism similar to "The Blair Witch Project". Moviegoers can usually keep some distance when watching horror films, thinking that it's only fiction, but a documentary film doesn't always allow for a similar suspension of disbelief. A scary story can effectively terrify them, the director said.
So Yun watched many television shows that investigate mysterious events or supernatural phenomenon, and he tried to make his film look like them.
As the word in the title "Mokdugi" suggests a nameless ghost, the film tracks down a mysterious being and investigates into an accident related to the ghost.
In the movie, a producer and his staff members become interested in a ghost image reflected on a mirror in a cheap love motel. While they try to find clues about the ghost's identity, they learn about a family murdered in Pusan about 20 years ago and begin to find links between the case and the ghost in the motel.
The film is narrated by a professional voice actor, combined with extensive "interviews" with people involved in the incident and experts and research old records as similar kinds of TV shows use.
But Yun also used conventional tricks of horror films by increasing tension and slowly revealing clues so that audiences are kept guessing what is behind the story of the murder case.
The hybrid type of experimental film was first released and streamed through the Internet two years ago, and about 7,500 people watched it in big portal sites after paying a fee. After screening at local film festivals, and it will be released in theaters on July 17 competing with other commercial horror films.
"It was impossible for me to show my film at theaters when I completed it", the director said. "And that's why I tried to find another way to show it to audiences, and one way of doing it was through the Internet".
There are many difficulties in making independent films from the very beginning to the end, with such issues of being financially supported to being shown to audiences, Yun said.
"I feel sad that so many good independent films haven't had the chance to meet more audiences. After only showing in several film festivals they are then forgotten", said Yun.
Yun is now working for Sio Film, a local commercial film production company, as a planning and management staff member as he can't make a living by making independent films. But one day, he said he plans to make another film that he can meet with audiences.
"Although I still like watching Hollywood films, I believe that experimental independent films should co-exist with them since they can show people a totally different world and prospects on movies as they did for me", Yun said.
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