23:59 (film)

Plot synopsis

1983: A group of young soldiers are on the last leg of their national service, spending the last few weeks in a training camp on a jungle island. A rumour had been circulating like wildfire amongst the soldiers. A mad woman living on the island had died at exactly at 23:59 (11.59 PM), and it is believed that her spirit had returned to haunt them at exactly the same time. Tan, the introverted platoon outcast, is adamant that he will be the next victim. He tries to convince his buddy Jeremy that the woman's ghost has been visiting him every night. Jeremy laughs and dismisses Tan's concerns, telling his mate that it is just his overactive imagination.

When the platoon embark on a route march in the forest, Tan is found dead by the river, with his limbs contorted in a strange way and an expression of fear on his face. Overwhelmed with guilt, Jeremy decides to investigate Tan's death, convinced that it was not an accident as what the officers believe.

On the night of Tan's death, Jeremy has a nightmare where he sees the ghost of Tan pointing intently at Chester, another recruit with whom Tan was on guard duty with, dead. The next night, Chester started acting strangely and banging his head on his bed-side locker. When approached by the other recruits, he started acting very aggressively and had to be restrained until the next day when a medium was brought in.

That night, Jeremy confronted Chester about Tan's death, and found out that Chester and Tan were on the same guard duty. During the guard duty, Tan had rolled down a slope accidentally and was grabbed on the leg. Flustered, Chester hit the assailant repeatedly with the butt of his rifle, only to find the bloodied silhouette of the woman who had been haunting them since that night. Jeremy and Chester later returns to the location where Chester had assaulted the woman, only to find that there was no body.

Jeremy, convinced that Chester would be the next to die, asks a villager who has lived on the island since young about the woman. She reveals that the woman was a medium who had the power to control others, and had given birth to a deformed baby one fateful night when a ghost had allegedly possessed her baby. The baby was ostracised by the villagers' children for her appearance, which made the woman furious. It was later revealed that the villagers suspected she had placed a curse on the children, as the children died one by one.

While on their way to inform the Platoon Sergeant of their findings, they were distracted by a disembodied wailing sound. Jeremy notices Chester walking out towards the wilderness and follows behind, only to find Chester with a look of fear on his face as his right arm starts twisting itself, killing Chester. Jeremy sees the woman and runs away (hurting his leg in the process), but ends up at the woman's house. He finds the woman's skeleton on a rocking chair.

As he was about to run away, the woman enters the room and tells him not to be afraid. Jeremy asks why she killed the recruits, only to be told she was not the killer, and that the killer was her deformed daughter. As her daughter enters the room, Jeremy tries to escape again but was blocked by the woman.

The woman possesses Jeremy and apologises to her daughter. It was revealed that the woman had died in the hut from an illness some time earlier. The Platoon Sergeant and two other recruits enters the house in search of Jeremy, only to find him alone. It was later revealed that he survived the ordeal.

The film ends with a new batch of recruits discussing the story of 23:59 and dismissing it, until the door opens to the sound of wailing at 23:59.

Cast

Release

23:59 was released in Singapore on 3 November 2011 and in Malaysia on 29 December 2011.