When a young shaman Hwarim (Kim Go-eun) and her apprentice Bong Gil (Lee Do-hyun) take a job from a “strange family” in the USA who have one of their ancestors tormenting them from beyond the grave, they enlist the help of a Geomancer Kim Sang Deok (Choi Min-sik) who has experience re-burying people’s ancestors for a generous sum.

The man who is acting as the head of the family wants to keep things a secret and urges them to act straight away, but Kim Sang Deok senses something is off with the gravesite and actually refuses the job. This is by no means the first horror film where good advice is ignored. GET OUT actually had the protagonist trying to leave also but was prevented from doing so.

In this case Hwarim suggests they try something different with a special ceremony that she thinks might work but they have not actually tried before. The head of the family also does not want the coffin opened at any point and wants the body cremated straight away which is something they would normally not do as the whole thing is actually investigate the remains to see what might be causing the disturbance (hence the whole “granny’s teeth” thing in the trailer).

The ceremony seemed to go well but upon going down the mountain it starts to rain and they have to delay the cremation as it is not “auspicious” to do for the soul to enter the afterlife. It all goes south from there.

The trailer and this review are deliberately vague on most of the plot and the fact there is actually more than one story in this movie. It would be best if you know as little as possible going into this to get the most enjoyment out of it.

Really the closest I could say this movie would be to would be the Wailing, but it does not have the odd tone that movie has in parts and the twist that still makes me have mixed feelings for it. Fools have already started trying to “explain” the ending to this movie when hardly anyone has even seen it. I don’t want it explained!

There is a mixture of different beliefs and religions in this movie but it is not as hammed up as it is with the Wailing where the Christian priest goes up against the evil spirit. The beliefs of the characters are tested along with their physical resolve when they come across something that seemingly cannot be stopped by normal means and is so strange that even the government does not want to know.

While it would be useful to know some more of the history and culture of Korea to understand more about this movie you can still get a lot out of it if you do not. There are ghosts and spirits from several different countries and people who know more of the spiritual side would understand which ones they are referencing.

This movie does a good job to build tension through atmosphere and plot and not just shitty jumps-cares and bad musical stings. I kept waiting for them but they just did not happen. There really isn’t that much gore except until right near the end.

It does remind me of some of the more understated horror films where they plot is more important than the gore like the Shining or Psycho. I hear it is doing quite well on release in South Korea and it played at the Berlin International Film Festival recently. Well worth your time and more people get to see it upon wider release.

Rating: 5/5

Movie details:

Directed by Jae-hyun Jang

Screenplay by Jae-hyun Jang

Starring: Kim Go-eun, Choi Min-sik, Lee Do-hyun, Yoo Hae-jin, Hong Seo-jun, Kim Jae-cheol, Jeon Jin-k

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery

Runtime: 134min

Country: South Korean

Language: Korean with English and Chinese Subtitles, English

Trailer: