The Wailing is a Korean horror movie directed by Hong-jin Na that came out in 2016. I like watching foreign horror movies as they don’t follow the American clichés of the genre. Also, unlike most horror movies, this movie is relatively long, two and a half hours of a slow horror build up.
The story follows Jong-goo (Do-won Kwak) a small-town police officer who is part of an investigation of mysterious murders happening in his small town. This is something very unusual in his town and he and his partner are unprepared to deal with such cases. Even when the killer is found, the murders continue. As all the murder cases are similar, the mystery deepens. Rumors lead Jong-goo to believe that all of this has something to do with a Japanese old man that lives in the woods nearby. Yet, it is unclear if he is actually guilty, or whether people are just looking for a stranger to blame.
As the murders continue Jong-goo’s daughter Hyo-jin (Hwan-hee Kim) becomes increasingly ill and Jong-goo will do anything to help her. However, that will require him to connected all of the pieces of the puzzle.
Surprisingly, this movie has a lot of humor in it. Especially at the beginning of the movie when the mystery is just starting to build up. This helps the audience with the first part of the movie which is rather slow. As the plot thickens, the movie plays with the audiences’ expectations of who is good and who is not. This film also sowed some seeds that will keep you looking backwards for clues to understand the unpredictable ending. When you think of it closely and look at some horror movie mythology, you will realize that this movie’s version of redemption is not what most horror movies have in mind.
If you like horror movies, I strongly recommend this one. It is also pretty low on gore and jump scares so if you are sensitive to these issues, you can still see it. The movie is now available on Netflix.
I give it 7.5/10
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