There's a big audition in Seoul for a spot at a Russian ballet school, and only one girl from the Younghwa Art Institute can compete. School-wide tryouts are ostensibly open to everyone, but the teacher is already prepping star ballerina Kim So-hee (Han Byeol Park) for the contest. And Yoon Jin-sung (Ji-hyo Song) isn't very happy about it.

Jin-sung's jealousy runs deep because she and So-hee are more than rivals--they're best friends. They sneak out of class to go to concerts, fix each other's hair and talk about living together after high school. In fact, So-hee loves Jin-sung so much that one wonders if she's actually in love with her. "My little Jinny," she croons. "All I need is you." Such open professions of love overwhelm Jin-sung and leave her as frozen as a too-affectionate child's puppy.

Ironically, the love Jin-sung can't handle is the very thing she craves. If she goes to the ballet contest, she'll be her teacher's pride and her classmates' personal yardstick. She'll be the best, most worthy student in the entire school. Now her friend--her more popular, more adventurous, more talented friend--is about to yank that worth out from under her pretty pink toe-shoes.

"Fox, fox, please grant my wish."

There are twenty-eight stairs leading to the school dorm. If you climb them and want something badly enough, a twenty-ninth step will appear and a spirit will grant your wish. Jin-sung wouldn't normally believe a story like this, but Hae-ju (An Jo), who told it to her, was really fat yesterday and isn't anymore. "Let me go to the competition," Jin-sung asks the fox, and he listens--not to her words, but to her fearful, jealous heart. And though she would never admit it, Jin-sung gets exactly what she wants.

Wishing Stairs is the final entry in Korea's Ghost School Trilogy. I haven't seen either Whispering Corridors or Memento Mori, but I don't think it matters: the film holds up very well on its own. And what I've seen in Wishing Stairs has whetted my appetite for the other films in the series.

What struck me most about this movie is that the wishing stairs aren't terrifying in the least. Sure, they have top billing and an iconic presence, but they're more like a children's story than a campfire tale. Even the theme that plays when Jin-sung climbs them has a windchime-tinkle that makes you feel like you're stepping into a happy and magical place. No--it's the schoolgirls who are horrifying, with their self-hatred and paranoia and willingness to destroy each other for their own ends. The stair-spirit only reflects the truth, like the little boy who points out that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.

It's not enough for Jin-sung to take other people's love from So-Hee; she has to make her suffer, as well. Hae-ju hates herself so much that she lives vicariously through her idol, So-hee: she steals her toe-shoes, wears her gym clothes and keeps a bunch of her stuff in a shrine. Losing weight makes her into what she wants--somebody else. Another girl's identity is so caught up in sculpting that she becomes her own art. The girls do these things to themselves and each other, and I wondered if the stairs grant wishes at all.

The scariest thing of all, though, is that these girls are regular people, and so are the actors who play them. None of the three main actresses have long resumes. In fact, Wishing Stairs is Ji-hyo Song's first feature film. But they all bring a rawness and innocence to their work, which fit wonderfully with the vulnerable children they are playing. The director originally thought that An Jo was "not nasty enough" to play Hae-ju, Thank goodness Jo didn't give up or over-compromise. She adds sweetness to Hae-ju's psychosis and makes even her obsessions sympathetic.

I not only felt for the girls at the Younghwa Art Institute; I was them, in some way or other. They only want love and acceptance, and, like too many of us, don't care who they step on to get those things until it is too late. Even the murders are just natural outgrowths of sick fantasies we all possess. (Come on, ladies. Don't tell me you've never wanted to push some stupid, show-off bitch down a flight of stairs). It's easy to blame the pressures of a competitive arts high school for the girls' behavior. But in my experience, women turn cannibalistic no matter where we are.

While this disc isn't exactly bursting with extras (we have a "making of" featurette, interviews with cast and crew, poster and still galleries and trailers for other releases, but no film-length commentary), the Asia Extreme branch of Tartan Video has definitely treated Wishing Stairs with the care it deserves. Images have no noticeable grain; colors are rich and bright. And subtitles read like the everyday poetry of speech--not as if somebody's played Perfection with the contents of a Korean-English dictionary. The result? A film that's both accessible to Asian horror neophytes and a welcome collectible for lovers of the genre.

Wishing Stairs is not a movie for everyone. It certainly doesn't disappoint in the "ew!" department, but its gore and shock scenes play second-fiddle to the everyday horror of high school. This film made me realize that I'm not as far from the teenage rat race as I thought. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.