Focus

The camera is one of horror cinema’s most compelling objects. Its function—to record images—can be refracted in countless ways to generate narrative, while the uncanny images it captures, or the fear they provoke, can drive audiences into terror. Focus unfolds like a photographer’s nightmare. Eun-ho, the protagonist, buys a secondhand camera, and inexplicable incidents begin to follow. As if cursed, the camera keeps finding its way back to Eun-ho, producing photographs that refuse to come into focus. Gradually, it becomes a sinister guide, leading him back to the events of “that night” and into a world he never knew existed. This is the first feature by director Shim Kyu-ho, who previously met BIFAN audiences with the 2020 short Disillusioned. His stylish direction remains unmistakably on display. (KIM Hyung-seok)