Nightmare (2000 film)

Nightmare (Korean: 가위; RR: Gawi; lit. 'Scissors'), also known as Horror Game Movie and released in the Philippines as Gawi: The Nightmare, is a 2000 South Korean horror film. Written and directed by Ahn Byeong-ki, who later helmed Phone (2002), Bunshinsaba (2004), and APT (2006), the movie stars Kim Gyu-ri, Ha Ji-won, and Choi Jung-yoon. It ranked as the sixth best-selling film of 2000, drawing 322,000 admissions in Seoul over five weeks.

Plot

The story follows six college friends who drift apart after graduation. Sun-ae moves to the U.S., Hye-jin studies psychology, Hyun-jun works in a scrapyard after a knee injury, Se-hoon opens an art studio, Jung-wook becomes a married lawyer having an affair with actress Mi-ryeong. Years later, Sun-ae returns and tells Hye-jin she is being chased by Kyung-ah, a girl believed dead. Hye-jin visits Se-hoon, who has nightmares about a faceless woman, and begins seeing Kyung-ah herself.

In college, Hye-jin had befriended a girl named Eun-ju, who was actually Kyung-ah—rumored to be a "possessed" child spreading death and misfortune, including the death of Hye-jin's father. After Hye-jin told Eun-ju to stay away, she witnessed Eun-ju's suicide. Now, Kyung-ah kills Se-hoon.

Hye-jin gathers the group; Jung-wook reveals Sun-ae went to the U.S. for mental treatment, not education. Hyun-jun blackmails Jung-wook with a tape of his affair, recorded by Se-hoon, who also captured Kyung-ah's death. Hyun-jun is killed next. Kyung-ha appears, visible only to Sun-ae, who flees.

Mi-ryeong is nearly drowned by Kyung-ah, then breaks up with Jung-wook and is found dead. Hye-jin finds Se-hoon's tape, which shows the truth: after Hye-jin left, Kyung-ah's cat attacked Jung-wook; in the chaos, Hyun-jun broke his leg, and Kyung-ah fell and passed out. The five friends faked her suicide, pushing her off a building. When she woke up, Jung-wook killed her.

Jung-wook breaks into Hye-jin's home for the tape, but Sun-ae attacks him. He chases her to the same building, tries to kill both women, and is impaled by Sun-ae with a metal rod. Later, Kyung-ah appears to Hye-jin as well and kills Sun-ae, so the two can be together.