Movie Review by Dennis D. McDonald
A small rural Korean village is visited by unknown forces. People begin acting strangely, then murderous.
A bumbling police sergeant (Kwak Do-Won) investigates and begins uncovering weird events and signs. Then his young daughter is affected by violent impulses. Events began to spiral out of control in the village. The body count rises.
As the sergeant investigates things go from bad to worse. Desperate, his family engages a powerful local shaman to cure his daughter. Things really get nasty. A final showdown becomes imminent – but a showdown with whom or what?
In the hands of a lesser director, cast, writer, or photographer, we might have in THE WAILING a run-of-the-mill “supernatural“ horror potboiler. But Na Hong-Jin also directed THE CHASER which in my opinion rivals SILENCe OF THE LAMBS in the crowded pantheon of serial killer horror-thrillers.
THE WAILING, despite taking over two hours to unfold, never loses steam. We watch as the police sergeant goes from bumbling and likable to troubled and then desperately violent as he pursues contradictory clues that may or may not point in the right direction. And we don’t really know until the very end.
The acting throughout is excellent especially the young daughter’s (Kim Hwan-hee). The country scenery is lush, gorgeous, and golden. Its beauty is balanced by dark and claustrophobic night time and interior scenes that pulse with dread and foreboding.
This one is definitely not for the kiddies!
Review copyright (c) 2021 by Dennis D. McDonald
