Shinbi's Apartment Ghost Reviews
NOW CONTINUING INDEFINITELY:

The Satyr Ghost!

Written by Jonathan Wojcik

Happy Halloween II After All! I lost a lot of energy and enthusiasm this year, and came dangerously close to cancelling any more content altogether for the rest of 2021, but after a break of just a few weeks and a very happy visit with family, I've picked the site back up for at least a few spooky features into the New Year, and because I had so much fun reviewing Shinbi Ghosts, I've decided to make this a "permanent" feature!

I don't currently have any plans to go back and expand on every prior ghost we might have skipped, but from now on, I will be attempting to review EVERY new ghost that debuts in Korea, as soon as any video clips or other materials are available online. This not only means a year-round review feature, but reviews that go beyond my personal favorites alone, though I have to say, our first new addition would have easily made it into our first 30 days...

direct video link

SEASON 04, EPISODE 07: a number of unusual car accidents have begun to occur on the same stretch of remote, country road. Cars driving at night begin to go haywire, their electrical systems malfunctioning and shorting out as the vehicles careen out of control...

The spirit responsible resembles a hoofed, four-legged animal with long, tusk-like fangs, patches of bone exposed throughout its blood red coat and pink flames pouring from its eyes. Somewhat deerlike, somewhat wolflike, it appears to be a chimera of animal carcasses one might see rotting by the side of a road...

...But when confronted, the creature's head and neck transform into a humanoid upper torso, like a centaur, still bearing the same fangs, flaming eyes and fresh corpse aesthetic. It can even summon a hunting spear for good measure, and there's one particular human it seems especially determined to kill.

ORIGIN REVEAL:

This particular ghostly grudge begins on the night a tired driver accidentally strikes and kills a Korean musk deer - Moschus moschiferus parvipes - which certainly explains some of our ghost's anatomy, but if this were just the story of an animal hit by a car, shouldn't the entire road system be drowning in phantasmal armadillos and opossums by now?

The deer's killer is mortified by his mistake, and actually rushes to the animal's side. Finding it too late to save, he picks up its body hoping to give it a dignified burial somewhere...

...And is himself killed instantly by another driver, this one obviously drunk off his ass. He panics when he realizes that he's hit a human being, but when he realizes that nobody's around to have seen it, the boozer leaves without even making sure the man is actually dead yet.

Ever since, the angry spirit has lashed out indiscriminately at those driving the same fateful hours, but eventually identifies its true killer once more, and very nearly gets its vengeance until he's finally arrested by the authorities (namely, Hari's mom!), as it turns out he left his wallet at the scene of the crime all along.

Amusingly, we see both the Satyr's human soul and musk deer soul put to rest in the end. Shame we didn't get to see that with Spider Ghost or Mama Centipede, though maybe the bug souls were too tiny to notice.

FINAL REVIEW:

The concept of a vengeful roadkill ghost is already cool, and the design appropriately looks the part; I even like the total inaccuracy of its visible bones, like the ribs lining its neck, which just gives me all the more impression of something mangled together from multiple deaths. The combination of a vengeful roadkill ghost with the vengeful ghost of a human hit and run victim is highly original, and it's a really novel way to bring a centaur-like monster into a setting of gruesome ghosts, even if they do call it a "satyr." I guess it has the shape and the spear tactics of a centaur, but a satyr is certainly what you call this particular combination of taxonomic genera.