The cast and director of the horror film Salmokji—including Kim Hye-yoon, Lee Jong-won, and director Lee Sang-min—pose at a press screening in Seoul. / Yonhap News

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“We wanted audiences to experience being lured by a water ghost themselves.”

Director Lee Sang-min described his vision for the horror film Salmokji during a press screening held on March 24 at CGV Yongsan I’Park Mall in Seoul.

Set to be released on April 8, Salmokji follows a group of people who enter a forbidden reservoir—known for urban legends—while filming a road-view project, only to become trapped in an inescapable terror. The film explores a disorienting space where the boundaries between water and land blur, and reality and illusion become indistinguishable.

Lee emphasized that the film’s core lies in “experience.” He explained, “Through road-view filming scenes and perspectives that follow the characters, we wanted audiences to feel as if they were directly going through the events.” He added that the space itself was designed to function as a source of fear.

Rather than relying on simple jump scares, the director said the film builds tension structurally. “It’s not about how much you surprise the audience, but how you sustain tension leading up to it,” he noted, adding that timing was crafted using the characteristics of the space.

Actors also highlighted the importance of the setting. Kim Hye-yoon said, “At night, the reservoir looked completely black, and the exposed branches felt eerie. That atmosphere naturally carried into my acting.”

Lee Jong-won described the strong sense of isolation, adding that he trained for about three months for underwater scenes and focused on conveying the character’s desperation.

Both actors took a restrained approach to portraying fear. Kim said she aimed to express horror through subtle facial expressions rather than exaggerated reactions, while Lee explained that he differentiated between reactions to known and unknown entities to heighten tension.

The filming environment itself contributed to the eerie mood, with cast members recalling strange experiences such as communication disruptions and unexplainable phenomena.

Lee concluded, “We wanted to create a shared experience of fear—one where audiences feel the tension together in the theater and then release it afterward.”

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