Oldboy (2003)

This movie was so awesome.  Although I wouldn't catergorize it as straight "horror," I think it's worth reviewing here.  Those who enjoy horror will love the violence and people who like great movies will love the storyline and the twists.

Oldboy begins with Oh Dae-Su and his friend Joo-Hwan in a police station.  Dae-Su is drunk and disorderly and Joo-Hwan is bailing him out.  Dae-Su leaves the police station to find a public phone and call his young daughter, as it is her birthday.  He passes the phone to Joo-Hwan and seconds later, Dae-Su is gone.

Where has Dae-Su gone?  Oh, only off to be imprisoned for 15. freakin. years.  Throughout this time, he is confined to a small hotel room, being controlled by an unseen person.  15 years later, and poof, he's out.  Standing on the roof of a building, dressed as a businessman, he re-enters society, but his journey has just begun.

He finds himself at a sushi restaurant, being served by a beautiful chef, Mi-Do.  When he passes out, she takes him to her home to recover.  He tells her of his intentions to find who imprisoned him.  But soon he will find out that the stakes are even higher.  He meets his captor, and learns that he has 5 days to find out why he was locked up for all this time.  If he does not discover the reason, Mi-Do will be killed.  If he does, the captor will kill himself.

I can't give up too much more of the story without seriously spoiling it.  But let it be said that this is one of the craziest twists I have ever seen in a movie.  I was literally watching it yelling, "no way.  Seriously, no way."  This is a really exciting and thought-provoking movie.   And although it's not traditional horror per se, it's chock-full of violence and torture, not to mention an awesome storyline.  Check it out.