Dead Friend

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Dead Friend (Ryeong), also known as The Ghost, is a 2004 South Korean horror film. It was written and directed by Kim Tae-gyeong and was his debut feature. It stars Kim Ha-neul as Min Ji-won, Nam Sang-mi as Su-in, Bin (Jeon Hye-bin) as Eun-seo, and Shin Yi as Shin Mi-kyung. Both Kim Ha-neul and Nam Sang-mi previously starred together in Too Beautiful to Lie.

The film centers around Ji-Won, a teenage girl suffering from amnesia, who is being haunted by strange and disturbing visions. Things take a turn for the worst when she discovers her high school friends are being killed off one-by-one by what seems to be a vengeful ghost. It is up to Ji-Won to try to recover her lost memories and find out why the ghost is killing off her friends before it comes looking for her next.


Tropes used in Dead Friend include:
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Su-in, completely by accident, got what she wished for - She becomes Ji-won. Unfortunately for her, there were some nasty concequences.
  • Break the Haughty: It was quite fun watching the victims' terror just before they were attacked, considering what haughty bitches they were in the past.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Practically every time Ji-Won wakes up.
  • Creepy Child: EVERY SINGLE KID IN THIS MOVIE!
    • The slow chant "Hide well...Your hair might show. Hide well...Your hair might show" was especially creepy.
  • Darkness Equals Death: Every death happens on a dark night in a dark room. For an extra kicker, it's usually a stormy night too.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Every character in the film. Possibly intentional? The four main girls were particularly creepy whenever they stood in a row and just stared someone down. This troper thought they were creepier than the ghost!
  • Foot Focus: Particular emphasis was put on the ghost's feet and the tracks of dirty water it left wherever it walked.
  • Ghostly Goals: The ghost had unfinished business to attend to...but not before killing off most of the film's cast.
  • Grand Theft Me
  • I Wished You Were Dead: Eun-jung wishes a ghost would take her sister away. Guess what happens not five minutes later?
  • Kill the Cutie: Poor Su-in
  • Nightmare Sequence
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: The movie's theme song.
  • Police Are Useless: While reporting a ghost is pretty ridiculous, it's hard not to shake your head when the police officers laugh in Ji-won's face and call her crazy when there are a bunch of random, unexplainable and downright impossible deaths happening around the city.
  • Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
  • The Reveal: The ending.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The lovely close up of Eun-seo vomiting buckets and buckets of water.