Exhuma

For a long time now, South Korea has been impressing audiences around the world with very well produced and executed horror features, and "Pamyo" (2024) is no exception. This promising project stands out in all aspects, being above average.

The initial premise, involving voices of help when you close your eyes, sounds scary and intense, although the story develops into more complex plots throughout the first act. The cast and performances are a highlight of the film, with very convincing performances, especially in scenes involving rituals. Despite having impeccable photography, the most interesting element of the film is the plot, surrounded by symbolism and a rich mythology. The story develops differently from Western works, opting for few explanations, which requires the viewer's full attention to understand a good part of the work. Although the antagonist is not particularly memorable, he has a great design and delivers tense moments.

Jang Jae-hyun, director of the project, had already demonstrated his aptitude and commitment to the genre in "Sabaha" (2019), another horror production with excellent results. "Pamyo" once again confirms the director's skill, consolidating him as a director of great talent in his filmography.

"Kim" (Choi Min-sik) is what they call a geomancer. He advises people on the best places for them to bury their loved ones. It's all about feng shui. Woebetide anyone who gets it wrong for a disgruntled ancestor can come back and visit retribution on anyone who mucks that process up - just ask the grandchild who though he would retain grandma's false teeth as as souvenir! Anyway, the wealthy "Park" (Kim Jae-cheol) and his family appear to have a secret that he and the more spiritual pairing of "Hwarim" (Kim Go-eun) and "Bong Gil" (Lee Do-hyun) might be able to help with. Even as far away as in the United States, his family are being tormented by a spirit. They are all led to a remote grave atop a hill that is marked simply by a plain gravestone with no name, just some seemingly random numbers. The buried man was of some importance so the fact that his grave was not ideally placed (only 65/100 on the best plot to have scale) arouses suspicion. They proceed to exhume the uniquely carved juniper coffin and decide to cremate it, but it's considered unlucky to do this in wet weather so leaving it respectfully dressed, plan to complete the process in the morning. This is their first mistake for overnight it falls prey to an inquisitive member of their team who releases an even more menacing entity bent on revenge on all those who left him at 65%! That is just the start of their woes, though. Returning to the grave for a ritual, they discover an even larger, chain-wrapped, box buried vertically - and one with no name, neither! It's now we head straight into "Mummy" mode and the adventure really does pick up. Can they identify this leviathan of menace and terror and thwart it's centuries-old battle plan? I did quite enjoy this. It taps into a fascinating mix of mysticism and legend whilst adding a dose of modern day cynical exploitation (they get paid over $500,000 for their relocation "fee") and as the story moves along you wouldn't want to be a chicken - or a pig, either! The largely dark and wet scenarios work well with the sparing usual of visual effects and a strong ensemble performance that keeps the story of dreams and nightmares moving along well for 2¼ hours of well made and at times quite scary ancient horror.

Shamanistic rituals, curses, folklore, history, feng shui, omens, grave digging, ghosts, demonic beings and a built in sequel to the original story. This film has it all.

The initial plot of this film revolves around a group of spiritualists trying to save a baby from a curse that is plaguing the first born sons of a prosperous bloodline. This could be a stand alone storyline but just when you think the story has come full circle, we are introduced to a follow-up storyline that delves deeper into causation. It is quite a ride.

The film was a bit muddled for me as a lay person simply because I lack knowledge regarding some of it's Korean cultural and spiritualistic aspects. I would've liked things to have been slowed down a bit and better explained but the film is already a bit long. I would've liked it to been two movies so that would've been ample time to dive deeper and provide better insight for me.

That being said, the atmosphere is well constructed, dark and really compliments the story. It felt really foreboding at times. The actors were all well seasoned and the effects were immersive and captivating.

I really enjoyed it so if you like Asian horror, you should definitely check it out.

Exhuma (2024 : Movie Review:

Korean cinema is definitely redefining the horror genre for modern cinema lovers. Jang Jae-hyun's Exhuma is another fine example of it. The film has turned out to be a huge hit at the box office, and I don't wonder. Such new and intense attempts at story-telling deserve audiences' support. I am glad that Korean audiences and critics gave Exhuma what it deserved. Na Hong-jin's "The Wailing" received universal acclaim, and it remains the best horror flick in recent times, not just in Korean cinema but all over the world. Exhuma isn't that good, but certainly close to it, and believe me, it's an achievement in itself in today's time.

Renowned Korean shaman Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and her protégé, Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun), are called by a wealthy Korean American family to identify the mysterious illness of the family's newborn son, who is struggling in the hospital. Hwa-rim uncovers the curse to be a 'Grave's Call', a vengeful ancestor's spirit haunting them. The family's patriarch, Park Ji-Yong, entrusts them to relocate the grave to appease the ancestor, his grandfather. Hwa-rim enlists colleagues, a Feng shui master, Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik), and a mortician, Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin). The coffin is opened by mistake, and the soul is freed from it to take the lives of other family members. After burning that coffin, the team finds an even more vicious soul, which was buried at the same place and is guarding the place. It's neither human nor animal, and it can't be eliminated. Will the team be able to get a hold of this new Japanese soul/monster who is fighting a war for the land?

Exhuma is a little long if we have to consider the overall grip of the narrative. I would have liked it to be 120 minutes instead of 130 minutes. Those 10 minutes felt over. Rest, no complaints about the screenplay. It's chilling, terrifying, and damn intriguing. You don't get to see those ghostly faces again and again; you see them only two or three times, but they do scare the hell outta you. That's one reason to love Korean cinema. They don't overdo supernatural stuff and keep it to a minimum so that we value them more. Seeing the same monster again and again reduces the fear factor. Exhuma has enough surprises, such as folk horror, family curses, land issues, haunting supernatural stuff, etc. The dialogues could have been better, I guess. The whole idea of the monster, the killing, and revenge could have been more brutal verbally. They missed that chance. Rest, it's a superb narrative in a new-age horror zone.

I am not very familiar with the Korean actors and their previous works, so I'll only speak about this film in particular. Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin, and Lee Do-hyun looked fantastic in their roles. Kim Sun-young, Kim Jae-cheol, and Kim Ji-an did pretty well in the supporting roles. In horror movies, the most important part is those frightening expressions, which were captured by these people in the film. There are no various shades, but one zone-horror. That's too difficult sometimes and too easy sometimes for some people. Exhuma's did everything they could with their characters, even though it takes time to get to the pickup point.

Horror movies are very much dependent on the sound design that helps build up the atmosphere and devilish scare around you. Exhuma has been blessed with a perfect score and sound design for the horror genre. That continuous background score in the last 15 minutes gets on your nerves, and there are some moments that get too loud to shake you from inside. The film has been blessed by another powerful aspect, and that's its terrific cinematography. Those cut-to scenes, blackouts, and shaking frames tell you what the real horror motion picture means. Just don't blink in those intense and terrifying moments. The locations of the mountains, old mansion, grave, and gorge are beautiful. Jang Jae-hyun has done a commendable job as a director. He has a solid grip on the whole narrative, and he doesn't really let you go out of that shaman and burial world. A few flawed and slow moments could have been avoided, but they don't hurt much to the overall viewing experience. As a whole, Exhuma is a chilling and phenomenal horror flick in new-age filmmaking that borrows old formulas only to redevelop them for modern audiences. If you are looking for a real horror thriller, then this one's the latest version of it.

RATING - 6/10*

Good movie and good acting. The part I liked was the depiction of the culture and the part I didn't like was that it wasn't scary. The potential of this movie is amazing and can be made even scarier. It's nice to be able to follow a neat and structured storyline. I had to endure going to the toilet so I wouldn't miss a scene. However, when I saw the ghost, I thought I was seeing the enemy of Resident Evil. For psychics and fengshui experts this movie is okay to watch. Thank you for making such a good movie, for me this is more of a semi-horror drama movie. Let's make a scarier movie. Happy watching.