Midnight aka Mideunaiteu (2021) – Oh-seung Kwon.

Stylish and compelling Korean chiller follows brutal serial killer (wi ha jun) as he sinisterly pursues the beautiful, gamine deaf witness (ki-joo jin)to one of his kidnappings. I've still yet to pinpoint the precise reason for my continued predilection for gruesome thrillers about demented, serially slashing nutbags? Perhaps it was my unduly prolonged potty training, the lack of nutritious fluorides in my bathwater, or a precocious interest in all things pertaining to fulsome lady bottoms may, or may not, have had something to do with it. Who knows? Perhaps, if I had suffered a reasonably severe, yet survivable head trauma as a nipper, my 'adult' obsessions wouldn't be quite so degenerated!

I deducted points for the killer's lack of charisma, but awarded top marks for his tenacity, adaptability in a crisis, and prodigious running skills. Midnight's blazing final act is kinetic, the film-makers ruthlessly doing their utmost to torment the pretty protagonist for our perverse delectation. Curiously, Midnight owes far more to shockers of the past than most Korean horror films, and yet it doesn't feel terribly organic, this punter often felt manipulated, like a rat desperately scuttling hither and thither in a lab-coated misfit's cruelly convoluted maze. Much like the proverbial pudding, the busy narrative was a trifle over-egged, not always, but occasionally, what you don't see can inspire one's imagination with greater efficacy.