The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 20 days to go.
The connection between the living and the dead, the mundane and the supernatural isn’t just a motive of horror and mystery that movies like The Wailing draw inspiration from. It has been a spiritual dispute since the beginning of humanity. “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have”, Luke already wrote in the gospel.
They are also the words with which South Korean director Na Hong-jin, who previously entered the scene with The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010), opens his movie. Unlike the biblical texts, however, his approach to the fine line between the living and the dead is blurrier. The result makes for a gripping and beautifully shot blend of horror, crime and drama.
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The mysterious developments kick off in the fictional South Korean town of Goksung. The local police, a bunch of charming but simple provincials, finds itself confronted with a mysterious murder spree. Those, who are proven guilty of committing these crimes, have in common that at first, they develop a bizarre rash which later makes them exhibit an aggressive temper, ultimately resulting in the murder of their whole family.
Tasked with unravelling this mystery, the good-natured local policeman Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) has to realise that the cause of these murders is rooted in the supernatural. Those powers are not too fond of his snooping around, and it is only a matter of time before he draws their anger upon his own family.
With his daughter Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee) starting to show signs of the same madness, a family tragedy is waiting to happen. Jong-goo now has to operate under pressure to find the culprit of all this evil before his daughter can commit a crime. One suspect is the mysterious Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura), whose arrival in Goksung aligns with the time period during which these incidences started. Another suspect is the woman in white, Moo-myung (Chun Woo-hee), who seems to know more about these incidents than she should.
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The determination to end these supernatural cruelties, paired with the overwhelming reality of the locals to understand the dark powers among them, are the fabric from which Hong-jin spins a series of dark and humorous scenes. In expanding tonally upon its dark setup, the film gains a unique entertainment value, which makes it stand out from the usual horror fare. While he does include the typical elements and notions of horror, including zombies, demons, and exorcists, he knows how to twist them just enough to offer the audience something new.
A special treat and perfect example is the fight of several residents against a zombie-like ghoul, throwing stones, rakes and kicks at it. This mode of defence is only interrupted ever so often by the humans to succumb to an ethic debate if they are even allowed to attack this formerly human creature.
Equally mesmerizing is the camerawork by Hong Kyung-pyo. The framing captures the confined spaces of the dreary homely interiors, only to immediately dazzle the viewer with rich wide-angle shots of the South Korean mountain scenery. The rich greens of the landscape, in which the shabby houses of the local population appear like grey dashes of colour, is on the one hand impressive, on the other also suffocating. Nobody knows what is really happening in the woods. The music further amplifies this notion, trapping the viewer between awe and increasing uneasiness.
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The realisation of Jong-goo, that he is battling an evil supernatural entity, feeds into the aim of Hong-jin to go to the bottom of the purpose of human existence. His characters raise the question for the differentiation between humans and ghosts on several occasions. The suspects the police interview seem to be made of flesh and blood at first glance. However, “not everything that moves is alive”, the shaman, who Jong-goo’s mother in law has called upon for help, wisely says.
The movie’s appeal stems from the plot veering off in unexpected but enticing directions and the time it spends on developing its multi-layered characters and their motives. At a run-time of two-and-a-half hours, every minute manages to grab the viewer’s attention and keeps him guessing until the impressive and devastating end. An exciting experience not from this world.
