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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Whispering Corridors 5: A Blood Pledge Review


Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: When four girls plan to commit suicide together, and only one follows through, dark secrets are revealed as the dead girl's ghost wants the others to join her.

Review: Well, we've come to the final entry (as of 2017), and, sadly, we do not end on a high note. Of course, the potential for a great movie was right there--all the "Whispering Corridors" films having creative premises. The problem with this entry is that it is edited together sloppily, and the story builds toward a laughably idiotic reveal that will have you rolling your eyes. Making matters worse is that the director, or someone on the set, really wanted this to be slasher-esque which does not mesh well with the style of this series. I don't know what went wrong, however, I can at least say "A Blood Pledge" was still better than part 2. So there's that.

In, somewhat, of an attempt to change things up, the girls are at a Catholic school this time around--not that this contributes any unique ideas. At first things start off intriguing with the girls making the titular blood pledge--that they will commit suicide together and that if anyone backs out they will be cursed to die afterward. Minutes later though...only one girl is shown to die, and the mystery of the film is figuring out why the other three backed out and what was the true motivation behind the blood pledge to begin with. Right out the gate, I feel like this was the mistake of the story. Rather than having only one die, there should have been only one survivor. Oh well. Moving along...rumors run rampant around the school about why the one girl committed suicide since the other students know nothing about the pact the girls made. This whole rumor mill plot point goes on too long and eats up a lot of the story unnecessarily. I get that the filmmakers want to convey this notion of petty gossip, but we've put up with this bullshit in every goddamn film thus far! Change shit up.

Unfortunately, the ghost in this entry is fucking stupid and annoying. Instead of going after the main cast, she spends time killing side characters pointlessly. Hell, there is one chick that appears to die, and we don't know who the fuck she even was. Is this really a tale in need of a high body count? Worse yet, the ghost is implied to be somewhat good, hence, making her random, side kills that much more baffling. Come to think of it, this one chick, while a total bitch, was kind of defending the dead girl and yet the ghost still killed her?! Okaaay. These zany antics bring me to another point: there are too many godforsaken background characters chewing up screen time. Who the fuck are any of these extras? And I'm not talking fun extras popping up for 30 seconds like part 4--I'm talking extras who get whole lines of dialogue and appear almost as the secondary cast. Then we have the main chick actually having a boyfriend (a first!) and his mom adding even more useless characters to the mix. It's too much. This shit needs to be consolidated. If this weren't enough, we get a dose of my favorite, schizophrenic-chic editing. We're talking the camera going apeshit, bizarre transitions, cuts to flashbacks out of nowhere, and all manner of shenanigans. My goodness.

And what is the big secret the girls have been keeping? What is the point to any of this? The group never wanted the fourth girl to come in the first place, and the original intention was just to let the main girl die; her motive being she's pregnant and...can't cope(?)...I guess. Wow, what a selfish bitch. Anyway, things went wrong with this fake suicide which leads to the group turning on each other once the ghost is after them. But why did they want the main chick to die? Arrrghhh...jealousy over that dumb boyfriend and the one chick wanting to have high grades. Yes, really! That is a pitiful payoff. The one bitch wanting everyone to die should have been the pregnant one which would have at least made her anger and jealousy believable. You know what, all of these characters are insufferable bitches. Fuck 'em! The only likable person is the ghost's sister who is also not presented properly with a wannabe possession subplot that goes to nowhere-land. Oh, and shocking no one, there is a moronic final zinger with the ghost going after that boyfriend but with a new haircut somehow. They have hairdressers in Korean hell?!

Seriously, what happened here? This started off with so much potential and could have been amazing. The core plot line is imaginative and opened up all manner of possibilities to take the mystery. Admittedly, the filmmakers do a good job of building up the hype to the reveal...but the payoff is unforgivably not worth it. The actors are okay I suppose, but the characters are unlikable and the ghost's presentation is nonsensical. The cast is too big and the background fodder getting killed is a poor substitute for creating legitimate scares. Of course, I can't forget the shit editing since it's an ever-present problem that persists during the entire running time. Overall, this is just a mediocre film that did little to stand out in this series. I think this is probably one of the big reasons why we may never get a part 6.

Notable Moment: When the boyfriend's mom randomly dies by head explosion. This was so randomly stupid and is never acknowledged again. What happened to her car or body? Why was nobody trying to find her as we see the boyfriend at the end, seemingly, oblivious to her death? Ugh. Shit writing.

Final Rating: 5/10

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