A psychology professor has been murdered by a killer with a method called “Murder game,” described in the novel named “Sigmound.” As a result of this, the author of “Sigmound” Han Joon (Hanmin Yun) gains popularity and uses the media and other people to succeed in life. A month later, Han Joon receives a blackmail notice from a mysterious man that mentions his secrets and promises to bring him down unless he tells who the real killer is. While he's stuck in the crosshair of the killer, his friend Ha Neul (Lee Bo Young) and reporter Hyeon Jeong (Kim Ga-eun) work together to try to solve the case that has Detective Kim (Hwang Bo Jeong II) and the rest of the police baffled as to how to solve the crime.
“Grendel” is available from Echelon Studios
Overall, “Grendel” is watchable if somewhat lacking drama/thriller. The main aspect to enjoy here is the main setup from writer/director Yun that creates a compelling mystery angle to see play out. Adapting a ploy similar to several giallo features, the investigation by the police into the personal life of Joon due to the connection he shares with the crimes, makes for a riveting setup. Having written a scene in his latest novel that closely resembles the way a person died in real life, this sets a fine starting point for the unraveling blackmail scenario that plays out. Resorting to numerous ploys within various social media outlets to try to either discredit Joon or set him up as a potential suspect, this use of modern social media makes for a highly effective angle here that starts the film off nicely.
However, “Grendel” does end up suffering from several factors. Most of these are relegated to the sluggish and outright lethargic pace present here. This pacing is quite problematic as it renders a large part of the movie to listen to people talking about clues and connections. Rather than focusing on a serial killer running loose and knocking off numerous victims, the majority of the running time is spent on Joon and Ha Neul discussing facts or starting to develop feelings for each other. As a result, regardless of how intriguing the initial crime is and how good the setup that Yun created, it isn't enough to overcome the boredom that sets in. The focus on these storylines isn't that intriguing and our attention wanes during the second half as a result.
That's also due to the other issue within “Grendel” which doesn't make the killer all that interesting anyway. Not focusing on the killer and spending the time it does on those other side stories leaves little room for the killer to make much of an impact in the storyline. The targeting of Joon feels quite random with there being little connection beyond the first murder being taken from his book, and the importance of the coin game from the book is all but forgotten by the time it develops any kind of steam. As well, with virtually no contact between them until the film is nearly over, it's really hard to get a sense of fear that they're going to strike at all which makes it really hard to care about any of this. These factors end up leading to the film's downfall.
Graced with a fantastic premise but ruined by some utterly problematic areas, “Grendel” has some watchable factors that are turned down by some rather big factors that keep it down. It's really only for those that are fans of this style of crime drama/thriller due to those issues.
