Os Sacerdotes

You wouldn't normally expect to see a full-blown exorcism in a South Korean movie, so consider us intrigued when we first heard of writer/ director Jang Jae-hyun's 'The Priests'. True enough, Jang's film is the first of its kind to dabble in the 'occult', a genre typically associated with Western cinema for both cultural and historical reasons. Digging deep into Roman Catholic theology to deliver a largely accurate depiction of the oft-misunderstood ritual, Jang delivers a tense and frequently edge-of-your-seat gripping portrait of the eternal fight between light and darkness, a theme which he also similarly explored in his award-winning 2014 short '12th Assistant Deacon'.

As in that short, the key protagonists are a renegade priest Father Kim (Kim Yun-seok) and a priest-in-training Deacon Choi (Gang Dong- won), who team up to save a young girl Young-shin (Park So-dam) that begins to exhibit one of the twelve manifestations of evil tracked by the Rosicrucrianism after a hit-and-run accident. Young-shin was a member of Father Kim's congregation when he was a priest of a church in the countryside, and it is partly their history that compels him to take matters into his own hands when the other members of his flock disapprove of his intentions to conduct an exorcism for Young-shin for fear of spooking the public.

It is hardly the first time that Kim is playing the role of the rebellious, tough-talking veteran, and he does it here with aplomb. He expresses with keenness not only the toll that Father Kim's fight with the demon inside Young-shin has taken on him, but also the conviction of his character's faith in the power of God over evil that gives him the strength to press on. Yet the film belongs as much to Father Kim as it does to Deacon Choi, a fresh-eyed ingénue who is plucked out of theology school to assist Father Kim while acting as spy for the larger Catholic fraternity to keep an eye on their wayward brethren - and unlike Father Kim, his motivation is less to save a life than to save himself from a life of studying in the seminary.

Needless to say, Deacon Choi soon finds himself way out of his depth as he is confronted with the very definition of evil, but there is more to Choi than just his naivety; indeed, Choi remains haunted to this day by the guilt of a traumatic childhood accident where he failed to save his sister from being bitten to death by a ferocious dog. It is this frailty that the demon will exploit to taunt and scare him in the midst of the rite of exorcism, and Gang embodies his character's transformation from fear to temerity with wide-eyed wonder and tenacity. His character is intended as Father Kim's complement as well as a passing-of-the-baton from veteran to rookie, and Gang shares an engaging dynamic with Kim in their scenes together.

Rather than contrive to take his audiences through a protracted story of Father Kim's battle with the demon within Young-shin, Jang opts for a much simpler narrative that places its emphasis on authenticity. Pretty much most of the first half is set-up for an elaborate display of the ritual in the second half, which takes place over the course of one full-moon night in a dingy top-floor apartment located at the heart of the bustling Myeong-dong district. Nonetheless, the first hour remains a riveting watch, constructed with scenes to underscore the peril that Father Kim and Deacon Choi will soon find themselves in. The procedure itself in its full extended glory is also more than worth the wait, packed with moments of sheer terror as the duo attempt to draw the evil spirit to reveal its name while overcoming their own personal demons.

For being the first of its kind, Jang deserves even more credit for successfully demonstrating how to 'localise' a genre that has never been associated with K-cinema or K-horror for that matter. Despite being his feature filmmaking debut, Jang exhibits a strong grasp of mise-en-scene, especially with the contrast of light and dark in the film's visuals. Jang's choice to film his movie on location in busy neighbourhoods and districts in Seoul, Anyang and Daegu also gives it a strong sense of place, and a particularly nice touch in that regard is the depiction of a traditional Korean shamanistic ritual right before the rite of exorcism. Oh yes, 'The Priests' is terrifying all right, bolstered in part by its heightened sense of realism, and besides being a bold new entry into a subject matter yet unexplored in that context, it is a perfectly worthy addition to the genre in its own right.

By now you seen one exorcism you seen them all, right?

The Priests tells the tale of a little girl processed by a old demon that needs two holy men to drive it out. The process is so standard, it comes off as cheesy. They use all the clichés of exorcisms to try to creep you out but it all comes out very dull.

the most interesting parts are when the Koreans add some of their own culture into the Catholic religion in order to perform demon hunting, like the fact that one of the priest had to be born in the year of the tiger in order to battle this particular demon.

The Priests also had a strange buddy cop element to it with a seasoned Priest who seen everything twice and his hard attitude expresses it, is force to team up with a young rookie Priest who has not even finished his studies. Although, this element of the movie seems to be used only to pass time and is not that appealing

It was interesting to see Korea's take on the process of possession, but not interesting enough to support a whole film.

If you look at the IMDb page for "The Priests", you'll find that the summary really isn't what this film is about at all. Ignore it! Instead, the film is an interesting combination of Western films exorcism films combined with Eastern sensibilities. This combination is an interesting one and the movie by Jae-hyun Jang is well worth your time.

When the film begins, a young Catholic priest in South Korea is trying to exorcise a demon from a young girl. However, soon something expected occurs and the girl dives from her hospital window. Despite the horrible fall, she is still alive and is in a coma where she remains off and on for years---all the while the demon remains trapped within her. The priest makes it his life's work to rid her of the demon but he is so far unsuccessful. As for his assistants, they all end up leaving the case...unable to cope with the horrible fight against evil. Soon, assistant number 11 is assigned to help. Can he manage to sum up the internal strength and together they rid the world of this evil? And, once the demon leaves the girl, what exactly are they to do with it?! That is a problem they really forgot to plan for in "The Exorcist"!

As I just mentioned the film, at times, "The Priests" clearly feels like "The Exorcist". Fortunately, it is not some cheap Korean copy or reworking of the Hollywood picture and differs in many, many ways. Because it's an Asian film, it integrates quite a bit of Eastern religion and mysticism as well. You'll see shamans, salt used for purification and many other non- Western elements within the film. You also have some amazing special effects as well as an ending that is nothing like the more familiar Hollywood version. Additionally, the story works very well and it will keep you on the edge of your seat! Plus, the ending really is awfully intelligent and offers an excellent pay-off. Well worth seeing and I look forward to more films from Jae-hyun Jang.

This was actually really scary at times, and later quite disturbing as the possession intensified. I did find it a bit slow moving somewhere around the mid point, but it was still interesting, though. The ending is awesome! It gets really exciting with a possessed pig, police chase, cars crashing left, right and center, and a priest running out of time. Wow!

I was entertained by this Korean film with two priests unofficially assigned to remove the devil from a teenage girl. The acting is top notch and the script has a decent sense of humor. As a Catholic with some knowledge of my church's beliefs, I found the story to be well done. Nothing new in the popular theme but I was o.k. With the result.