Panic Fest Film Festival Coverage
Couples to Hell review.
A South Korean anthology film about couples struggling with some unique, and dark, issues.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Couples to Hell
Directed by Anglee
Written by Anglee
Starring Cha Bo-Sung, Cheon Hee-joo and Ji Yeon-ju
Couples to Hell Review
There are a couple of things that make Couples to Hell a bit of a unique anthology film. First, each of the four segments comes from the same writer/director. Not unheard of…but rare. It also gets rid of the framing story altogether. Also not unheard of…but also rare. Combining both deviations from the standard anthology format may leave Couple to Hell feeling like a collection of a writer/director’s short films. That’s because is. In this case, however, that might be a good thing.
The benefits are obvious even if they shake up expectations. First, the quality of the segments has the consistency you’d expect when they come from the same creative place. Second, framing stories are generally among the weakest aspects of an anthology film. We’ve seen that go sideways before…leaving us with an unrelated collection of shorts. Couples to Hell doesn’t have that issue. Despite no “reason” holding these stories together…the movie’s theme does. These are all stories about relationships gone bad.
Without a framing story to discuss…let’s jump right into ranking the segments included in Couples to Hell. In reverse order…as the Gods of anthologies intended.
4. Couple Rings (segment 1)
The opening segment of Couples to Hell is easily its weakest. It’s a strange choice to start the program because it doesn’t reflect the quality and depth of the rest of the segments. This is a very slight story…one that doesn’t even have an ending. What they’re going for works well enough…but the lack of resolution leaves a funny taste in your mouth. I almost expected to cut back to this story after the credits rolled on the final one.
The story is simple…a seemingly happy couple is abducted by a madman and forced to play rock, paper, scissors. The loser of each round gets stabbed. The overall winner is allowed to live. Byeong-tae is immediately willing to take the punishment to spare his girlfriend Ji-na. At least…for one round. Their relationship begins to fall apart almost immediately. Self-preservation takes precedence over love. The actors do a good job…but they too are cheated out of a suitable resolution.
3. Girlfy’s Room (segment 2)
The next segment is much stronger. The fact that the two short stories that follow it are ranked even higher should give you a good idea of how Couples to Hell plays out. It rises as it continues. Girlfy’s Room gives more space for its story to breathe than Couple Rings does. It also changes the threat from an external force to an internal one.
Hyeon-soo is obsessed with an internet personality. His girlfriend wants him to stop watching her channel. His best friend mocks him for the amount of money he spends on her. One day, he thinks he sees her in the real world. She’s in distress and in need of his help. Or so he believes. He tells her during a chat on her channel that he knows she wants his help, and he will take care of her abusive partner for her. The woman on the channel immediately boots him from the channel. Is he just seeing what he wants to see? He’s heading to a deadly confrontation (or two) either way.
2. When Darkness Falls (segment 4)
It’s best to consider these next two segments essentially tied in quality. The reason When Darkness Falls gets the lower rank is simply due to it being the much shorter of the two. It’s a smaller story…but it does feature the best twist and payoff in Couples to Hell. It’s the right choice to finish the film…even if a brief return to the opening segment would have felt earned following the end of this one.
Ji-eun’s life has become centered around caring for her recently crippled boyfriend. One night…she heads to a bar and picks up another man. She brings the man home…and then things get wild. When Darkness Falls is different than the other segments in a very specific way. Unlike the stories about false love…this is, strangely, a story about true love. More specifically, the cost of true love.
1. Magic Potion (segment 3)
The top spot goes to Magic Potion. A strange little story about a young girl’s quest to raise enough money to buy her boyfriend the birthday present he asked for. This segment goes into not one…not two…but three musical numbers. It also involves blood magic, a wizard named DJ WIZARD, and maybe the best performance in Couples to Hell.
Soo-mi is in a tough spot. She doesn’t have nearly enough money to buy the gift her boyfriend (a hip-hop artist named Swinger) wants. She exhausts every option…including prostitution. As the days to his birthday tick away she becomes more and more desperate. Eventually…she meets a wizard who offers to buy her virgin blood for use in his spells. What can she do but agree?
All the segments in Couples to Hell are dark…but this one is, despite its use of magic and wizardry, the most starkly realistic. You feel for Soo-mi. Especially since it’s patently obvious that Swinger is just using her. This is the longest, and most complete, story in the anthology. It’s also the best.
Scare Value
The opening segment aside, Couples to Hell is an anthology of consistent quality. These are dark tales about complicated relationships. Writer/director Anglee pieces together short stories of a similar theme to great effect. The lack of framing story is a benefit as well. These stories are held together better by their shared artistic vision than any manufactured reason for seeing them could ever do.
