Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: An anthology film comprised of 10 stories that showcase all manner of psychos and the supernatural.
Review: Yes, another anthology film. No, you're not experiencing deja vu when I repeat the same complaints. In this instance, "Urban Myths" tries to use quantity to hide the weaknesses of the individual tales that, when combined, are underwhelming. There is one standout segment, but even that story completely fumbles the landing. Well, let's not beat around the bush any longer and see what we're getting this time around.
Tunnel: I'd love to say things start off strong, but, alas, this was as lame as it gets. There is an attempt to build up tension with a nervous guy hiding something from the police. This is fine, however, all we learn is that he accidentally killed some girl walking in the road...I guess. It doesn't matter, because our guy goes apeshit, screaming at the girl's ghost until she appears and beats him to death. Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of a vengeful spirit if she can simply appear and beat you to death hours(?) after dying? Wouldn't a better approach have been to make the guy go crazy in front of the cops or something? Whatever, dude.
The Woman in Red: If this tale was nothing more than a kill sequence from a feature-length film then I'd have no problem. Unfortunately for us, all we get is some bitch seeing the ghost of a girl she and her friends used to bully...I guess. Long story short, the ghost kills the bitch as we realize she's picking off the bitches from a high school photo we see. It's not that this is terrible unto itself, but we've seen this setup performed a thousand times by now.
Tooth Worms: This is a goofy tale, but I will admit it went in a direction far, far from what I was expecting. A germaphobe dentist attempts to treat a patient with a strange ailment. Drawing upon old folklore regarding the idea of worms infesting inside your teeth, the dentist becomes practically too scared to extract the alleged parasites. You might be wondering where this story is heading--maybe some kind of gross out body horror? Nope. What if I said zombie apocalypse? Bingo. Magically, these worms infect the patient to such a degree that he transforms into a zombie that spreads these zombie-worms with each bite until everyone is becoming zombies within minutes. Hey, I'll give the creators an A for creativity at the very least.
Necromancy: I've discussed the "friendships" of Korean girls before, but I think this time it's safe to assume the characters here are actual lesbians. Cutting to the chase, one of the girls commits suicide, because other people suspect their relationship or there was an off-screen rejection. Regardless of the motive, the girls made some kind of pact to resurrect the other should anything happen. I do like the buildup to this ritual, but the ghost ends up looking like something out of the shitty "Resident Evil" sequels rather than a proper spirit. The living girl failed to notice that in order for the ghost to come back she must "eat" her...which she does. The tale ends with the resurrected girl somehow becoming one with the other girl in an almost pretentious way. Eh, this was okay for what it was, and I liked the atmosphere.
The Wall: In a nutshell, this was an interesting idea ruined by a nonsensical, retarded ending. Some guy moves into an apartment whereby the neighbor is always hitting the wall, keeping the man up. Our main guy eases up on his annoyance when he sees it's a younger woman that he thinks is into him. So, instead of freaking out over the knocks, he tries to ask the woman out by knocking back. As you might easily guess, the woman is not doing the knocking and stands him up for the date. Wandering into the woman's apartment next door, he notices weird things going on which leads him to tear down the wall on his side of the apartment, revealing two dead bodies. Right when things are about to get interesting, our man is magically pulled into a portal. The end. What the fuck was that shit? I hate when I'm minding my own business and a portal just opens up to ruin my day.
The Closet: It's more of a cabinet, but to each their own. Well, this is, by far, the best segment in this series. It does all the things you'd hope from a short as far as getting to the point and having great atmosphere and suspense. Sadly, they dropped the ball with an ending that makes no sense and is both rushed and stupid. A woman notices that someone is giving away a cabinet for free on some app. Ignoring the danger signs, this woman meets the guy giving away the cabinet and goes into his apartment. Luckily for her, nothing happens but he does give off creepy vibes. Getting the cabinet to her apartment, the woman quickly becomes convinced that it's haunted as shifty things begin to happen including the door opening on its own. Rather than--I don't know--getting rid of the thing(!) the woman attempts to purify the spirits which appears to backfire. Right when things are really getting intense, the woman inspects the cabinet only to discover our creepy buddy from earlier was hiding inside a hidden compartment all along! This is shot so perfectly and makes for an excellent jump scare. Things, however, go off the rails after the woman stabs the bastard a shit ton and he magically survives and yanks the woman under the bed before the segment ends. I guess the guy was Michael Myer's Korean cousin or something. Setting aside the stupid way the events resolve, this was the kind of tale I wish comprised the entirety of this anthology. It was good enough to stand on its own, that's for sure.
Ghost Marriage: I've covered this concept before in other horror movies--typically involving ghost brides specifically. In this instance, I was hoping for some kind of Korean spin on things, but, nope, that's not what we get. All that really happens is some guy gets tricked into becoming the husband to a dead chick when he thought he was getting a cushy job. Is it too much to have both?! The story doesn't even emphasize why this is a bad thing or really explain much of what is happening. Oh well.
The Girl in the Mirror: This is probably the worst tale of the bunch. Some narcissistic chick will seemingly do anything to get attention online. Out of the blue she begins to see some kind of supernatural entity scaring her. After acting like a big bitch at home, this ghost or whatever comes out of her phone and kills the girl. Mmhmm. Bro, you have got to do better than whatever the hell this was supposed to be.
A Mannequin: Once more, this was an intriguing setup that falls off a cliff by the end. Two guys working at a warehouse are weirded out by the mannequins they're storing. The older guy tries to scare the other one by discussing the idea that you don't need to be worried about being short a mannequin but rather being scared when there's more than you started with. This I like. Idiotically, we go in a different direction with an online legend about people with mannequin faces which our main guy just so happens to come across right after hearing about it for the first time. This is like if you just found out about UFOs and then two seconds later you're abducted by aliens. It's just plain stupid. Worse, all that happens is the main dude is chased around a bit, seemingly kills a mannequin person, and then he transforms into one himself. The end. Just...why?! The beginning had promise and they kept showing some yoga mannequin that could have been the primary antagonist. Ugh, what a disappointment.
Escape Games: What I find most amusing about this tale is that this killer escape room experience is right in the middle of a shopping center next to a pizza place. It's like--imagine getting a slice of pizza and just wandering over to the escape room and dying two seconds later. I get the idea this slight detail was not factored into the editing of this story! Anyway, three friends that are supposedly experts on escape rooms are invited to some exclusive one. There is an attempt to make things creepy, but it felt so rushed given the time allotted for each tale. At the end, the characters all seemingly die despite two of them being alive mere seconds before the one guy enters the last room. Funny how that works. So, no, we do not end things on a high note.
Overall, this was a mediocre set of stories. While I can appreciate the instances of originality and creativity sprinkled about, fundamentally, the majority of the segments fall short. Yet again, there is no wraparound or overarching theme to pull the stories together in a meaningful way; this hurts an anthology so much in my book. As is the case with every other anthology I've reviewed, if there's a particular story that catches your eye then seek it out, but I can't necessarily recommend wasting your time with the movie as a whole.
Notable Moment: During the "Closet" segment when the guy appears in the cabinet. You know something is going to jump out, but the filmmakers effectively toyed with the expectation of what exactly was going to jump out. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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