I am going to preface this by saying that I am in no way a fan of horror movies/shows/dramas. I don't enjoy being scared and I don't appreciate the excessive violence and gore than tends to go hand and hand with most of them. I tend to avoid them like the plague. However, I happened to come across this one and was intrigued by both the cast and the plot and decided it was worth potentially traumatizing myself. Surprisingly though, I actually quite enjoyed this drama and wasn't traumatized in the slightest. There is certainly a fair amount of both gore and violence, but not to excess, in my opinion, and for the most part, it didn't feel overly gratuitous. And while I felt there were some holes in the story, it was still interesting enough to keep me invested till the end.

The story itself is interesting, a group of friends is summoned back to an island by a text message where another friend of theirs committed suicide five years previously and chaos ensues. From there it bounces back and forth between the present and the past, five years ago. The pacing was overall pretty good. I felt it started to drag a little bit towards the end when it was focused more on events from the past than the present. There were definitely some scenes that could have been shortened and at that point I was a little more interested in what was happening in the present. There are also a number of plot holes/moments where I definitely had to suspend disbelief because events or actions just didn't make sense even within the confines of the drama. My only other complaint here is the moralising messages regarding the sexual assault and revenge. It felt heavy handed to me and unnecessary to hammer the point home quite as hard as they did. That, however, is simply my opinion.

The acting was quite good all around. Zee is almost always consistent and good in whatever role he's playing, but this was fun to see him as such a completely different character. I hadn't seen Jimmy or Tommy since Why R U? so it was good to see them again. Tommy looked so much more mature here and Jimmy's acting has improved significantly. Sairung did such an amazing job for her first acting role. She had some very tough scenes and she absolutely nailed them. Same for Ray, Noon, and Pinomyim, they did such great jobs in their first roles and I look forward to seeing what they all do next.

The characters were all so interesting in this drama because you start out thinking they're all relatively good/neutral people, but by the end, you've come to realize how flawed/bad they really are, with a few exceptions. However, the journey to that realization is not black and white. There are definitely shades of grey which adds an additional layer of interest because even though you know a character is essentially bad to the bone, there are moments where you pity them and you almost wonder, if their life/circumstances had been different, would things have turned out better for them? In addition to that, the psychological aspect is also very intriguing, the way they all start to mistrust and suspect each other and then turn on each other. You have friends who have known each other for years at each others throats, secrets coming out that have been kept quiet for years. I find it fascinating.
- Bew is the most guilty and the most disgusting of the group, in my opinion. While on the one hand, I pity him for the abuse he suffers at his father's hands, there is absolutely no excuse for his decision to rape both Lilly and Sonar. It was interesting to see though that he was consistent in who he cared for, both with Lyla and Nest, especially Nest. Even finding out that she was the one who posted the clip didn't sway him. If he wasn't such a scumbag, I would have found it sweet. His slow descent from the high and mighty Bew to the shadow of his former self he is by the end, is great though.
-Lyla is very nearly as bad as Bew. She's a master manipulator, the star child, but she's also unhappy because of the pressure she faces from her parents. After the clip of her and Bew surfaces, she snaps. She threatens her friends with a knife, asks Mac to kill everyone, blames her sister for her own rape, tells Bew that Lilly and Sonar deserved what they got, and, according to Lilly, planned to kill everyone on that trip, possibly with Mac's help. Frankly, I was pretty happy when both she and Bew died, absolutely no tears were shed.
- Dan was the most blameless character, in my opinion. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I don't recall him ever doing anything deserving of the way he died. Seeing his relationship with Bew slowly revealed was fascinating, especially once it became clear that they were actually stepbrothers. It made it so much worse what Bew had done. And Dan's love for Lilly was so sweet and genuine. I do wonder what would have happened if he had survived, if she would have let him live.
- Ken and Plato are a little more complicated. Of the two, I hold Plato less blameless than Ken, but there is also an element of if Sonar and Lilly went to a teacher and the teacher refused to do anything, what exactly were they supposed to do? Obviously the girls weren't thinking that clearly and they just wanted their revenge and, yes, it sucked that Ken was more focused on protecting himself and Plato from Bew, but along with the two of them cheating on Gel and Fone, I'm not going to judge too harshly because I have never been in a situation where I had to be worried that I might be judged or ostracized because of who I loved. Anyway, I really loved their relationship and the way it was developed. I was so hoping they would survive and was kind of crushed when they didn't.
-Gel and Fone were certainly not blameless, cyberbullying both Lyla and Lilly with photoshopped pictures, dumping mop water on Lyla, trash talking her, and generally just being mean. Neither girl really has any redeeming qualities and frankly I wondered why two such nice guys as Ken and Plato would stay with them as long as they did. Fone's vendetta against Gel after her eye is ruined felt a little overdone to me. I mean, she'd just seen her boyfriend about to kiss her friend's boyfriend, then her friend confesses her love and won't give her space and she accidentally impales her eye on a branch. I'd freak out too. The sudden desire to murder Gel feels like overkill, but then again, everyone was going kind of crazy at that point.
-Bozo is in kind of the same boat as Ken and Plato for me. If a teacher refused to do anything to help Sonar and Lilly, what exactly was he, as a student, supposed to do? I feel like that's a lot to put on someone. Aside from that, Bozo was, well, kind of a bozo at times. While I thought his relationship with Mind was sweet, he tended to be a lemming, following whoever he thought was the strongest or who could get him what he wanted. Still, I did overall like his character and I was sad when he died.
-Mind was another of the lesser evils. While she was the one who filmed Bew and Lyla's encounter, she was not the one who posted it and only intended to use it as blackmail against Lyla. I appreciated both her strength and her determination. I also enjoyed her relationship with Bozo, it was very sweet and natural. I was also sad when she died, but I was glad she died naturally and wasn't killed.
-Mac is kind of up there with Bew and Lyla for me. I don't think he so much loved Lyla as he was obsessed with her, or it was an obsessive love. Either way, super unhealthy. While he wasn't a master manipulator like Lyla, he was able to manipulate certain people like Nest. Whether he ever actually cared for her is up for debate, but considering how much he obviously still loved Lyla, my guess is not which means he'd been manipulating her for five years. That's pretty cruel.
-Nest is the surprise and disappointing survivor. Of all the characters, I think I found her the least interesting. She turns out to be the one who released the clip of Lyla and Mac in an effort to keep Mac to herself. Ironically, that backfires as it sets into motion everything that happens in the drama and actually sends Mac straight back into Lyla's arms where he reveals not only that she is actually not disabled, but also that he thinks she has another secret. I get that she has issues, and I did pity her to an extent, but I just didn't like her enough to want her to be the sole survivor.
-Sonar and Lilly made an interesting pair of masterminds. The theatricality of their actions was certainly entertaining at times. They're another pair of complicated characters because you do have to pity them. They're victims of rape and when they sought help, no one helped them. I lay the full blame for that on the teacher, she was scum for not doing anything to help her students. That would make any woman bitter. For Lilly, on top of that, dealing with Lyla and her cruelty, she snapped too. It's, of course, no excuse for going on a murder spree, but you do have to feel for them and what they suffered to at least some extent. And I found the end, which I took to indicate as Lilly having committed suicide and meeting Lyla in the afterlife, to be rather hopeful. I'd like to think they could start over again and have a better relationship.

I loved the music. There were times that it really reminded me of the music from Hannibal which was amazing so very well done there. The opening was so interesting and unique. The use of lighting and backlighting to create silhouettes and highlights was just gorgeous.

The makeup was overall not bad. There were definitely some instances where it looked pretty fake, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad, in my opinion.

All things considered, this was a fun diversion for a couple days and I'm very glad I walked away un-traumatized. I enjoyed getting to see several actors I'm familiar with in roles I hadn't seen them in before and get to see some new promising actresses. This is definitely a drama I would recommend watching as its pretty quick to get through. It's not one that I would watch again, I think once is enough, but I am glad that I took the time to watch it.