Once again, our coverage of Bucheon International Film Festival (BIFAN) reviews is cowritten by Film Festival Editor Joseph Perry and Guest Contributing Writer Chris Weatherspoon.
A man of the world, guest reviewer Chris Weatherspoon has lived in South Korea for “quite a bit.” A huge fan of all cinema, Chris also works locally in the entertainment industry, and knows what he is talking about . . . alright!?
Killing Time (South Korea, 2026); review by Chris Weatherspoon
Official BIFAN synopsis from program notes written by Kim Hyung-Seok:
The popular horror YouTube channel ‘Killing Time’ is forced to shut down after a fatal accident during a live broadcast. Later, in hopes of making a comeback, the channel’s staff plan even more sensational content, this time set in an abandoned psychiatric hospital deep in the mountains. Can they make it through the broadcast without another disaster?
Review
Director Jang Jun-yeop’s Killing Time opens with unease baked right into the premise: a mysterious location, a beautiful girl swimming alone in a pool, and, watching from the shadows, a producer who treats the disaster unfolding on his screen as content rather than catastrophe. That’s the rotten engine driving the whole film, a prank-video channel whose stunts keep landing kids in the hospital, consequence-free, thanks to South Korea’s lax accountability laws for online broadcasters.
After a teammate dies on camera during the cold open, the “Killing Time” crew is more panicked about their sinking subscriber count than the death itself. The lone exception is Yeon-woo (Ryu Hye-young), whose guilt over failing to save her castmate haunts every scene she’s in. Against her instincts, the team, led by the coldly ambitious PD Joo-won (Nam Yoon-su) and his heavyset compatriot Sungmin, pushes forward with a new stunt: a live broadcast inside the shuttered Eden Psychiatric Hospital.
The end credits confirm what genre-savvy viewers will already suspect: Killing Timeis a remake of the 2016 Australian slasher Scare Campaign, and it lifts that film’s asylum setting and prank-crew-gets-out-pranked structure almost wholesale. What starts as another cynical content grab escalates into full slasher territory alarmingly fast, complete with a killer whose knack for appearing exactly where he shouldn’t strains credulity more than once.
There are also flickers of A Nightmare on Elm Street in the booby-trapped setpieces that put Yeon-woo in a Nancy-style final-girl position. Unfortunately, Killing Time leans so hard on its twist that the internal logic buckles well before the credits roll, leaving a sharp premise that never quite earns its payoff.
Pacific (Argentina/Colombia, 2026); review by Joseph Perry
Official BIFAN synopsis from program notes written by Jongsuk Thomas Nam:
A group of young, mischievous travelers is stranded on an island in the Pacific off Colombia, where they encounter a group of natives who are kind enough to help and join the celebration of rituals. Sooner rather than later, they realize the reasons for such an evil presence that has remained hidden from humanity for centuries, and there they make the next sacrifices.
Review
Director Gonzalo Gutierrez’s science fiction/creature feature Pacific is an ambitious South American spin on classic U.S. genre fare. María Gabriela de Faría and Ricardo Abarca give good lead performances and their characters have different kinds of depth than you’ll usually find in many of their American monster movie counterparts. The plot gets convoluted — five writers get credits here — but there’s no denying the action and monster mayhem. Some shamanistic and extraterrestrial elements are also at play but aren’t fully explained, and our group of young traveling protagonists and potential monster food is light on their back stories. Overall, though the CGI work on the creature is impressive, and as a B-movie plot with A-level aspirations, Pacific is a fun, entertaining watch.
Killing Time and Pacific screened as part of Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, which ran from July 2–12, 2026 in Bucheon, South Korea.
