Immersive pull of K-horror Salmokji and religion origin story The Testament Of Ann Lee

Salmokji: Whispering Water (NC16)

95 minutes, now in cinemas ★★★☆☆

The story: A street-view production crew encounters the supernatural at a secluded reservoir in South Korean cinema’s sleeper hit of the year, an urban legend that has scared up US$10.2 million (S$13 million) of ticket sales and counting.

Jeju Island is so yesterday.

The K-horror Salmokji: Whispering Water has made its eponymous filming location in Yesan County a tourism spot of such hype, local authorities have had to impose night-time visitor restrictions.

The reservoir, constructed in 1982 over a cemetery, was already known for its haunted sightings.

Its very name, Salmokij, alludes to the gateway between life and death, the boundary between the two increasingly slippery upon the mysterious reappearance of a colleague (Kim Jun-han): He has not been seen since his previous visit to the site.

Kim Hye-yoon (Lovely Runner, 2024) plays the project’s producer and Lee Jong-won her former boyfriend in the confused and panicky team of half-dozen trying to make sense of what is going on.

However, their ghost story is without meaning, nothing profound.

It is all about the disorienting openness of the surrounding water, which will reveal its secrets as drowned wraiths pull terrified humans into the mist-shrouded depths.

There are jump scares and the genre trope of a creepy old crone, but no gore.

Writer-director Lee Sang-min, in a confident feature debut, creates atmospheric unease by supplementing his cinematography, lighting and sound design with the tools of paranormal content creators such as 360-degree cameras and spirit boxes.

The day darkens into ever spookier night and the group finds itself circling the same spot again and again, unable to escape the insidious forces.

Hot take: The plot does not always hold water in an otherwise skilful exercise in dread that never lets up.

The Testament Of Ann Lee (R21)

137 minutes, available on Disney+ ★★★★☆

The story: Hollywood actress Amanda Seyfried relives the ecstasies and agonies of 18th-century Shakers founder Ann Lee. Born working-class poor in 1736 Manchester, England, the illiterate leader of the Christian sect believed herself to be the Second Coming. She was jailed for her ideology, and further persecuted upon immigrating with eight apostles to establish a utopia of equality in British North America, where she died at age 48.

Not since Mamma Mia! (2008) has Seyfried sung and danced this much, although the music of Mother Ann is in a different register.

The Shakers are so named for their fervid communal worship. Like ravers possessed, they stomp, twirl and writhe in The Testament Of Ann Lee to expel sins.

This quasi-musical biopic, with its dozen reconstituted hymns, is very strange and extraordinary in the devotees’ hypnotic rapture.

The composer, Daniel Blumberg, was an Oscar winner for The Brutalist (2024), which Norwegian film-maker Mona Fastvold co-wrote with her American director partner Brady Corbet.

Fastvold is now the one directing from a joint screenplay by Corbet.

Both their historical dramas centre on a suffering visionary, whether a Holocaust-era architect (played by Adrien Brody) or an evangelist, and Seyfried’s consuming performance is body and soul.

Ann was racked by the loss of all four of her children as infants, when she experienced visions convincing her fornication is humanity‘s downfall.

Celibacy became her foundational creed.

This narration by her disciple Sister Mary (Thomasin McKenzie) does not interrogate her dogma – pity her frustrated blacksmith husband (Christopher Abbott) – or the mythology. It is an article of faith that draws its singular strength from meeting the prophet on her own terms.

Hot take: This religion origin story is a movie of artistic calling unlike any other.