Nightmare Teacher (2016) User Reviews

A twisted version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

[stevey-2 · 7/10 · 10 February 2021]

My wife and I are horror buffs, so we checked this out based on someone's "best Korean horror series" recommendation list.

It's really light on the horror side; probably inappropriate for anyone under 13 years old, but that's the extent of it.

However, we found it was tons of fun (albeit very silly) and we thought all the storylines were pleasantly different enough to keep us going through the whole show. The acting is actually pretty solid, especially from the eponymous Teacher, and the characters are all entertaining in their own ways.

Fun stuff! But don't expect to be scared or find anything remotely highbrow about it. This is a high school drama written for teenagers, probably BY teenagers, and it's mostly just an amusing cautionary tale about the consequences of being greedy little monsters.

It's really great. But it is also up to you.

[barbarahfmelo · 8/10 · 2 October 2021]

I almost gave up watching it, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. I went without a lot of expectations and I was surprised. It's a short drama so the story doesn't have as much time to develop as some do, but I think they did a good job overall. The story is interesting and each episode you are curious about what will happen with each character. In short, it will entertain you if you look for: a not too heavy suspense + school drama, short, not so elaborate, but enough to hook you and stories with reflective (and i would say also teen) themes. And, for example, if it has been a while since you watched your last kdrama, its a great startover. Just a detail at the end that I think could be different to improve consistency. Overall 8.

Spoiler: I think it would be better if they don't forget the dreams at the end, so they could learn the lessons for real.

Not Bad at all

[nunciofranksalette · 8/10 · 15 October 2021]

I guess I am watching too much Korean Drama. Picked up on Mr. Han immediately. For those that do not know, he was the infamous Joo Dan Tee in Penthouse-Art of War, a part he played to the hilt who met an appropriate end. If you have not seen Penthouse, do so. It lasted for three seasons condensed and each one was better than the other. Really good stuff-much much better than what the Americans offer.

After the shock of seeing Joo Dan Tee as Mr. Han wore off, I began to compare him to his role in Penthouse which is similar but not quite as bloodthirsty or devious. I wish they had used adults instead of kids because desiring fame is something that is not limited to teenagers. Actually, I thought of Rod Serling and a number of English Short Stories(Devil and Daniel Webster) and even Star Trek as models for this series. So, watch this and let your imagination go to the way things could have been and remember,-be careful what you wish for, you might get it. And, whatever you do, stay out of the counseling room if you won't want to run into Joo Dan Tae.

Learn through your nightmares

[gioandao802 · 10/10 · 15 December 2017]

Initially Nightmare Teacher (or Nightmare High) seems like your typical highschool drama but after the first episode it becomes clear that the story is far more deep and innovative. The plot focuses on personal desires of young people whether it may be popularity, appearance, intelligence etc and the consequences of not being content.

Teachers are meant to lead us along the right path through learning, in some circumstances the only way for one to learn is through experience and consequence and Nightmare High explores this concept in a fantastic meaningful way.

There is a light element of horror mixed in with some mystery. By the end of the series you are sure to have more questions instead of answers, particularly about the antihero. The ending of the series is left largely open to interpretation where the viewer will try to piece together everything and come up with their own unique conclusions. It also stuck with me for a few days!

I thoroughly enjoyed Nightmare High and I hope a second season is being considered. Perhaps with a lot more focus on the mysterious antihero. On the side note, the soundtrack for this series is beautifully composed.

Fairly average high-school drama with a taste of horror

[rosaliesummers · 3/10 · 25 March 2017]

To sum it up, 'Nightmare Teacher' is about mysterious things happening at a Korean school. A new teacher arrives, and offers his students the chance to come see him in the counselling room. Once the students are there, they make a deal and sign a contract with him to get something they want, and it all starts to look up for them. However it goes downhill for each student pretty quickly and always ends badly, and afterwards nobody can remember the students who signed the contract. The first 10 episodes focus on five students, two episodes for each student, and the last two episodes focus more on solving what is going on.

The two main characters, Ye-Rim and Sang-Woo were awesome. Intelligent, funny, and caring, what more could you want? Ye-Rim is class president so takes it upon herself to be responsible and find out why people are disappearing and Sang-Woo, who has a huge crush on her, helps. I was rooting for Sang-Woo the whole time, he was definitely trying his hardest to impress Ye-Rim! Their acting was good, as was most of the cast's actually.

Most of my problems with this was the plot. Each of the students who signed a contract with the teacher had very fickle wishes: popularity, beauty, a boyfriend, etc. I guess they were trying to make it relatable for teenagers but frankly all the secondary characters were just stupid. Who signs a contract in blood? They clearly don't think things through! Also the plot was a bit inconsistent, especially in episode eight when the boy who signed the contract seemed to be recovering and being independent and then all of a sudden for no reason he deteriorated again into his former state.

The thing that ruined this for me was the ending (major spoilers ahead). Ye-Rim is in the dream world trying to figure out what is going on, and Mr. Han pretty much tells her how to escape, so obviously she does. When she wakes up he just decides 'Oh well lets just forget this whole thing ammiright' and just rewinds all the events. This made no sense to me. If the dream place was his 'heaven' as he called it, why did he just get rid of it? Because one girl escaped, because YOU TOLD HER HOW TO? As none of the students remember it they haven't learnt their lesson so they're basically all going to be the same terrible/stupid people they were before. It just made no sense and seemed lazy and rushed. Also Ye-Rim and Sang-Woo had remarkable luck to get this far anyway, seeing as he obviously knew they were sneaking around his office and could easily have called them out in it. Did he want them to succeed? But how on earth would that benefit him when they are jeopardising his 'heaven'? Why would he give it up in the first place? So many questions!

Because I'm nitpicking, the other thing that irritated me were the weird camera angles. There were some odd zoom ins of Mr Han that were really forced and just didn't fit in.

In summary, if you've got a few hours to spare you might as well watch it, seeing as each episode is only between 10-20 minutes. It's fairly average but enjoyable enough for a quick binge on Netflix so worth giving it a shot.

Interesting!

[charissajkennedy · 4/10 · 24 May 2021]

I can't tell if I really loved it, but I did keep watching it because I really enjoyed the first episode... so that does say something, some of the characters stories I wasn't as focused on as others but overall they were still good! I would recommend this because it's different and the episodes are quite short and focus on different characters every few episodes so you aren't committing to too much if you decide to watch it. There are some thriller/horror type themes to it which I did enjoy. Even after finishing it though I still have a lot of questions that are unanswered but overall I'll rate it 4/10.

Mmm, it's okay!

[spiderdib · 4/10 · 28 June 2020]

I do not understand if I loved it or if I disliked it, I only understand that I have a lot to think about, I love that they leave questions floating on air even when we want to know if the teacher is really bad or the students are. I guess, we are all probably wicked and there's only one wish missing to be completely who we want to be