Tragically and inexplicably, Chang-soo committed suicide, with no apparent explanation. Naturally, his family blames So-hee, who was just as baffled. She is even more surprised to suddenly inherit her the fabulous country home he secretly designed for her, right down to the “Spring Garden.” However, bad things happen there, as viewers know from the prologue. Of course, the teenagers suffering from the terrible misadventure were also there with nasty intentions.
Eventually, So-hee starts connecting the dots between Chang-soo and the delinquents. However, In-kyeom is still way ahead of her. He is the creepy guy who always skulks around her house. He knows a lot about bad mojo. The question is whether he is fighting it or causing it—or maybe a little of both.
Admittedly, Spring Garden is a fairly convention K-horror film, but it has yet to have significant North American screenings, beyond its in-flight distribution (seriously, you never know what treasures you might find on American international flights). It was inspired by Neulbom Garden, which is allegedly one of Korea’s three most haunted locations (along with Gonjiam Asylum), but the circumstances of Baek Yool-seo’s narrative are very different than the reported Neulbom lore.
Ku’s execution is solid, building a lot of tension out of a somewhat thin premise. It is scary, but also a quite sad, in a very Korean-horror kind of way. Recommended for genre fans (especially as a nice in-flight discovery), Spring Garden is available this month on AA flights.