Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Local legends, lore, and rumors claim the Salmokji reservoir is haunted, teeming with deadly water ghosts that never let anybody leave the place alive. When GPS footage shows an eerie face protruding from its waters, a small production team is sent out to record new footage of the area and update the Street View. Are the urban legends fake, or are they walking to their deaths?
Directed by Lee Sang Min, Salmokji opens with a sequence of a young couple camping at the haunted spot. Their romantic evening, however, ends in tragedy. Then the story shifts focus to the protagonist, Su In (Kim Hye-yoon), who is ordered to lead a crew to record new footage of the infamous spot, even though her ex-boyfriend and still-colleague Gi Tae (Lee Jong Won) warns her against it.
Su In’s crew consists of two energetic juniors, Seong Bin (Yoon Jae Chan) and newbie Moon Se Jeong (Jang Da A), who also runs a ghost video channel on the side (think Ghost Train heroine Da-kyeong, the self-proclaimed “horror queen”), and the brothers Gyeong Tae (Kim Young Sung) and Gyeong Jun (Oh Dong Min). As soon as they arrive at the location, they encounter a suspicious, creepy old lady who advises them to stack rocks at the place and make a wish. Weird much? Anyway, as they start setting up their equipment and going about their work, spooky shadows, ghost-like objects, and various scary incidents start to occur around them.
The reservoir obviously is a remote location, with poor network, sparse population, and no residents with walking distance, to give the stale an aptly gloomy, atmospheric mood. One of the characters claim that ‘Sakmokji’ means something between life and death, while others chip in bits and pieces of what they’ve heard, like how its built over a cemetery. And the core concept is straightforward: the ghosts try to lure their victims into the water in uncanny and non-violent ways before drowning them. The rest of Salmokji is about Su In’s group struggling to tell apart what’s real from the supernatural and get the hell out of the cursed place.
With its 90-minute runtime and half a dozen characters, the story doesn’t have the space for someone to truly stand out. Even though Su In easily gets most of the screen time, her character just feels suspicious and isn’t someone many would want to root for. Her younger colleagues and even the brothers have more personality. Although to actor Kim Hye-yoon’s credit, she does convincingly portray Su In.
For better or worse, Salmokji dives into standard horror territory, even though it does not rely much on jump scares and is interestingly gore-free. So, at least for those who don’t mind horror movies as long as they don’t feature guts flying about or bloodbaths, this film is quite palatable. You can grab a snack or eat without worrying about something disgusting or grisly freaking you out. However, fans looking for spine-chilling thrills or even a more psychologically intense plot might be left feeling a little disappointed.
Overall, ‘Salmokji’ is the kind of horror film you can actually watch with your family, especially if a spooky night sounds like a fun get-together idea.
Rating; 6 stars on 10. Watch ‘Salmokji’ on Prime Video.
Read Next: Resident Evil (2026) Review: Entertaining Side Quest! (Short Audio Version Below)
