S. Korean box-office hit Salmokji: Whispering Water turns spooky reservoir into attraction

SEOUL – Korean folklore has no shortage of ghosts. Spirits latch on to just about everything – mirrors, old wells, empty rooms. But the one that is burrowed deepest into the popular imagination is the water ghost (mulgwishin): a drowned soul that pulls the living under.

So pervasive is the motif that it found its way into the everyday expression “water ghost tactic”, meaning to drag someone into the ditch so he or she suffers alongside you.

Released in South Korea in April and opening in Singapore cinemas on May 7, Salmokji: Whispering Water takes that familiar fear and builds a feature around it.

A street-view filming crew – the kind that shoots street-level imagery for online mapping services – is dispatched to a remote reservoir in South Chungcheong province to reshoot footage marred by strange distortions.

Led by Soo-in (Kim Hye-yoon), the team members find themselves sinking into something they cannot drive away from.

Also starring South Korean actors Lee Jong-won and Kim Jun-han, the movie comes from Showbox, the distributor behind historical drama The King’s Warden (2026) – which turned into a full-blown cultural phenomenon and the highest-grossing South Korean film of all time.

“I wanted audiences to feel like they’re being lured in by a water ghost themselves,” writer-director Lee Sang-min said at a Seoul press conference in March.

The 31-year-old is making his feature debut after cutting his teeth on horror shorts. “That meant being very precise with the road-view shots and how we framed the characters – making it feel like you’re right there with them,” he said.

K-drama star Kim Hye-yoon has been riding high since the time-slip romcom Lovely Runner (2024) put her on everyone’s radar. The South Korean actress has already shown she can carry a feature with 2022’s scrappy, high-octane The Girl On A Bulldozer, and Salmokji: Whispering Water is her first crack at horror.

“I’ve always loved scary movies, so I was genuinely excited the whole time we were shooting,” said the 29-year-old. “Soo-in keeps a tight grip on reason while everyone else is falling apart, so I tried to channel the fear through the eyes and expression alone – stripped of any vanity.”

Jang Da-ah, 24, the older sister of K-pop star Jang Won-young of girl group Ive, makes her big-screen debut as a horror-content creator who tags along to the reservoir. “Getting a character this different from anything I’d done before felt like a gift,” she said.

Director Lee said he hoped fear would stay with audiences long after they leave the theatre, adding: “I want it to keep going even after the credits roll.”

Salmokji: Whispering Water has crossed two million admissions, the first home-grown fright flick to clear the bar in eight years – since Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum in 2018.

The hype has spilt over onto social media, with moviegoers flocking to the actual reservoir in Yesan, South Chungcheong province, which served as the main filming location.

Late-night crowds at the site swelled to the point that the local county government restricted access after dark starting from April 14.

The authorities also urged visitors to refrain from camping, cooking, fishing and littering, noting that the reservoir is a public agricultural facility where such activities are not permitted.

Officials also warned that the site poses heightened risks at night due to unclear boundaries between land and water, and limited communication service in some areas, increasing the likelihood of falls or drowning.

The reservoir was built in 1982 to supply irrigation water, and was rarely visited prior to the film’s release.

Rumours of the reservoir being haunted spread after it was featured on popular South Korean horror variety show Midnight Horror Story in 2022. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK