We meet the family who will be the main characters going about their daily life. The first sighting of the creature is awesome. As a crowd is shown gathering on the banks of the river pointing, commenting and staring in wonder at the freakish thing hanging from the underside of the bridge. When you get a glimpse of what they see you find yourself also leaning in, saying “What the……???? Huh? What the fuck is that!?” Cool. What more can I say? I was enraptured.

Then the mayhem begins. The creature unfurls itself and launches into a bloody rampage on land. OMG! Hundreds of humans must have been killed within a minute’s time! I really enjoyed the way the monster moved. The way it ran, slinked, swam and swung from the rafters of the bridge. Nice fluid motion. And it ate ‘em up!

During this first bloody kill scene, a group of park goers are trapped in a metal shed with the creature. I was cringing as the trailer rocked, blood curdling screams pierced my ears and their outstretched arms reached out for help from between two padlocked doors. During this, Hyun-seo’s (sleep challenged) father loses his grip on her and the beast nabs her. Moving forward to the family gathered at the mass memorial set up. Everyone is crying and carrying on in front of the pictures of their loved ones. The family is paying their respects in front of Hyun-seo’s picture and they end up in a tangled, writhing, wailing, and mourning mess on the floor! It’s hilarious.

Then, directly after that, we have the official military man in the yellow containment suit, falling over himself. After pulling a slippery banana, he gets up real quick and looks all official like, composes himself and pretends like nothing at all happened. They do it well. Trust me. And when the mourners want to know what the hell is going on, he quickly fumbles with the TV, claiming the “news” should have all the answers!

Now, we begin the search for Hyun-seo. We flash to her predicament in the sewer many times (lets us know she’s still alive), every time being covered in more and more shit.

The creature continues to go on feeding frenzies and comes back to deposit the bodies numerous times. It vomits a plethora of human bones and even takes a nap. Meanwhile, no one believes the family. No one will help. The Dad is obviously crazy, isn’t he?! The crazy ass, cross eyed American medical dude would have you believe so! So, the family takes it all into their own hands.

I felt especially emotional about one scene. While the family is taking a break from the hunt, they eat dinner and bow their heads. Moments before, one of them (can’t remember which) comments about how hungry Hyun-seo must be. The director has her morph into the scene and they take turns quietly feeding her. *The naïve young man beside me thought they were dreaming. I had to explain to him that the director wanted to portray the girl being in their thoughts at that quiet moment while they ate. Duh!*

You find room for more empathy towards the father, Gang-du, at this dinner scene. He continues to completely and yet innocently fuck up throughout the movie (letting go of his daughter’s hand in a critical moment, miscounting bullets, etc.) but he’s endearing none the less.

Here’s where the good ole USA steps in. They nationally announce that S. Korea isn’t doing enough to contain or otherwise extinguish the so-called “virus”. Uncle Sam is going to drop “Agent Yellow” to kill the beast. I could never tell whether the “Agent Yellow” was real or not. People and creatures kept falling over and getting up repeatedly. Someone vomited blood then was fine. I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to watch it again. We see, from our creature’s perspective, the other side of the river. The human rights activists have set up a veritable smorgasbord of carnage for it. There are those giant red and yellow human stick figure balloons waving in the wind, pointing the way to the human buffet.

So, here it comes. The big finale. Let me just say….imbedded fish got spat out of the back of the creature. It was weird and the CGI fire was bad. Why is it so dang hard to make fire look real?

Daddy tries his best. Auntie does good. Basically, every family member gives their everything to save one of their own. Regardless of the outcome of the movie, they were all heroes in the end.

I noticed that the soundtrack was available for purchase at the popcorn stand. But all I noticed in the movie was a lot of silence and the occasional marching-band music. What could be on that disc? But I must say that the soundtrack or lack thereof worked well in the movie. I just can’t understand who would want a disc full of mostly silence punctuated by marching-bands. Shoot! I may have to buy the damn thing just to find out! I can’t wait to buy this film.

H.O.P.E.L.E.S.S. Rating:
- It's worth paying attention to, and with the right crowd you'll be cheering and yelling.