"Anti Gas Skin"

There's something incredibly unnerving about the way "Anti Gas Skin" constantly revels in close-up shots. Part of it is in just how obviously flawed the four main characters' faces are. These errors range from pimples to boils to simple sheer unsettling facial fair, but the effect is the same in all cases. Continuously watching the picture gets to be rather scary, because for all these close-up shots, none of the characters in this movie express any kind of clear emotion as long as they can get away with it.

"Anti Gas Skin" is experimental existential horror. Almost nothing in this film, were I to describe it here, actually qualifies as scary. Maybe the insects, but even that's a stretch. The camera just obsesses about the blank expressions on the faces of the main characters, and the similarity between them all becomes kind of terrifying. These people all have completely different fears- all that binds them together is that they never say or discuss this stuff in any meaningful way.

Well, that and the gas mask toting serial killer. Who's really kind of irrelevant to the proceedings anyway. "Anti Gas Skin" is one of those analytical films that's interested not in actual discrete people and objects, but rather more amorphous ideas and abstractions. What little dialogue we get is terribly unhelpful. The closest we get to a direct worded explanation of motive is when the American soldier breaks down and cries, letting our his worries in poorly acted badly phrased English (with no Korean subtitles for the native watcher).

A casual observer may see a scene like this as eye-rolling. Another incompetent white person in a Korean movie. But that would be missing the point- none of these people are real. They're not characters- rather, we're just watching a bundle of insecurities play out on screen. These people are living in a horrifying daily hell that can't be expressed with words, or even emotions.

Take the element the sound of silence plays in the proceedings. DirectorsKim GokandKim Sundeliberately avoid using any kind of aural clues as to what's going on except in the most highly punctuated alarming moments. Everything is deliberately constructed to just make the proceedings feel horribly wrong, even though nothing all that strange is actually happening. At one point the Smurfs show up. In the context of the scene in question their appearance makes perfect organic sense. And yet the overall construction of the situation is so deliberate, so carefully poised, that listening to that blasted song put me in full-on panic mode for no reason.

"Anti Gas Skin" is truly a film that defies logical explanation, filled as it is with these inconsequential terrifying moments where I felt compelled to turn away from the screen even though I could think of no reason why these images should be so frightening. Perhaps it's because the film inspires a sort of emptiness in the heart. These characters, whatever extremities they ultimately result to in their search for the mask wearing serial killer, don't seem to actually feel anything. There are no reactions, no learned truths, not much of anything. For this complete lack of content "Anti Gas Mask" ultimately turns into a void. Staring at this film is like staring into the madness of everyday life. It's a fear that transcends simple scares, hitting all too close to home.

Review by William Schwartz

"Anti Gas Skin" is directed byKim GokandKim Sunand featuresJo Yeong-jin,Jang Liu,Park Ji-hwanandMin Woo-gi.

Trailer