Lingering – Shudder Review (3/5)

LINGERING is a new Shudder horror movie from South Korea. It’s also known under the title Hotel Lake which refers to the place where the story plays out. Of course, empty hotels have always made for a good horror movie backdrop. Read our full Lingering movie review here!

LINGERING is a new Shudder horror movie that is still listed under the title Hotel Lake (or Hotel Leikeu) on IMDb. It’s from South Korea which is always a plus for us here at Heaven of Horror since we do love South Korean productions. For this horror movie, the quality of the production is as impressive as ever though some of the horror effects do become a bit over-used.

The story plays out mostly in a near-empty hotel which is, of course, a classic backdrop for a horror story. The Shining being the most obvious example of this though it is far from the only one. For me, this Shudder horror movie has a lot of potential but the movie does run too long which is not to its advantage.

Continue reading our Lingering movie review below and check out the horror movie on Shudder now.

A brilliant first jump scare

There is a jump scare at the beginning of Lingering which works absolutely perfectly. Both the sound, imagery, and the events surrounded this very simple jump scare, are perfect! From this moment on, I felt like I would be in for quite a horror treat.

Unfortunately, the movie couldn’t quite live up to this initial level of surprise and perfect timing. Even though the movie is only around 100 minutes long (one hour and 41 minutes), it feels like it runs at least a good 20 minutes too long. There is a huge chunk in the middle part where we seem to be going nowhere.

Fortunately, the actors in Lingering all deliver some amazing performances and the story is ultimately very intriguing. I especially have to highlight the child actor in this film since she managed to break my heart more than once.

The ending of Lingering on Shudder

While the middle part of this Shudder horror movie didn’t really work for me, the ending of Lingering certainly did. As well as the beginning, obviously, since I’ve already mentioned that.

I do feel like the runtime could have been utilized a lot better which only becomes even more apparent when the ending comes along. There is a lot of backstories there that we never really get into. I would have enjoyed getting to know even more than I ultimately do.

All I’m trying to say is this; If you become impatient while watching this movie, then do hang in there because the Lingering ending does really come together. It’s not revolutionary but it does work.

You can watch Lingering on Shudder now!

Yoon Een-Kyoung (or Yoon Eun-Kyung) is the writer and director of Lingering (also known as Hotel Lake) and clearly has a lot of love for both the story and the characters. In fact, all the characters featured in this horror movie gets enough screen time for us [the audience] to get an idea of what they’re each struggling with.

And yet, I can’t help but feel that so many opportunities were missed with this movie. Some amazing portrayals by brilliant actors (especially the earlier mentioned young girl) do get somewhat lost in a story that stumbles around too much.

I loved the opening jump scare and I enjoyed the ending, but so much of the middle part felt like a modern take on The Shining that didn’t really hold up – or even work. Still, I would recommend checking out this horror movie on Shudder if you enjoy horror mysteries and South Korean genre films in general.

This is the debut film for writer-director, Yoon Enn-Kyoung, and who knows, he might end up surprising us with his next movie. There is definitely enough potential in this one for me to pay attention to this name in the future!

Lingering is available exclusively on Shudder beginning November 12, 2020.

Details

Director: Yoon Een-Kyoung
Writer: Yoon Een-Kyoung
Stars: Se-yeong Lee, Ji-Young Park, So-yi Park, Yeong-ju Seo, Su-ji Jeon