Recap Korea Movie "Urban Myths: Tooth Worms " 2022

May 30, 2022

Despite what the title may imply, only one of the ten episodes of "Urban Myths" actually deals with an urban myth. And even that one's a bit of a stretch. Jong-chan (played by Shownu) has started a new job involving mannequins, and mannequins are quite creepy. So he starts looking up urban myths about mannequins online, foolishly failing to heed by the advice he reads. One after another, "Urban Myths" takes premises of differing creative levels, and leads its protagonists to an unfortunate fate.

As per episode one, there's really not much to say. Evidently Gi-hoon (played by Kim Do-yoon-I) was up to something no good when he got pulled over by the cop, so it's hard to feel that bad for him when otherworldly forces conspire to attack his car. They are, at least, sufficiently scary otherworldly forces, at least when the lights are off. Episode two's Soo-jin (played by Lee Yeol-um) was also, probably, a bad person who deserved to be menaced by a scary ghost.

I'm not trying to be pithy, there's just so many mostly unrelated stories in "Urban Myths" that describing them by necessity takes up all the energy in this review. Episode three features one of the more inventive stories- Ji-hyeon (played by Arin) struggles with the urge to bring her dead friend back to life despite this obviously being a terrible idea. Episode four is perhaps my favorite, if only because the whole idea of tooth worms is a great way to make any mundane trip to the dentist's office quite terrifying.

Episode six, about ghost marriage is...well, the idea of marrying a ghost is obviously scary, there's just uh, not much else to go from there. Despite all the stories having good, jump scare style freaky climaxes, the roteness of it all does get to be a bit repitive after awhile. "Urban Myths" is a movie best appreciated in small doses at a time, even if director Hong Won-ki did have the sense to close with the single most elaborate tale of an escape room that's so fun you'll never want to leave.

That leaves episode seven, about Hyeon-joo (played by Seo Ji-soo) who gets into a rather awful looking fight with her own reflection. And honestly, the special effects in "Urban Myths" are good. The whole bit with the phone is excellently constructed. And all the wizardry done to the faces of these beautiful pop stars to emphasize that something has gone horribly wrong is superbly scary and unsettling.

There's also genuinely good variety. One story we'll get mummies and some kind of portal to another dimension. That one was pretty great. Then we'll get one about a high quality wardrobe that a guy...uh...hides in? Those are episodes nine and seven, if you're trying to keep track. But all you really need to know is that they range from OK to pretty great actually, at least if what you're after is simple horror frills, so I can confirm that "Urban Myths" is as advertised.

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