This South Korean Horror Movie With 99% On Rotten Tomatoes Is A Must-Watch For Fans Of The Genre

Korean auteur Na Hong-jin's earliest films — "The Chaser" and "The Yellow Sea" — brilliantly spotlight his propensity for dynamic filmmaking. After all, Na's artistic brand has always been intense and visceral, combining explosive emotion with brash storytelling that doesn't believe in subtlety or restraint. While such a chaotic approach would end up feeling disjointed in the hands of a lesser director, Na's ability to balance method and madness leads to wonderfully rich stories oozing with life and personality.

So when Na decided to helm an atmospheric rural-horror in 2016, his impulses were perfectly suited for a riveting story that mixes an unconventional police procedural with an even weirder supernatural thriller. This is "The Wailing," Na's astonishing portrayal of evil that constantly oscillates between authentic and implausible, embracing a frenetic energy that can be overwhelming to keep up with. The film's Cannes premiere had already established "The Wailing" as a critical darling, but it also did pretty well on release, while garnering a string of accolades right after.

Although Na's horror flick is markedly distinct in tone from genre standouts (like Kim Jee-woon's blood-soaked, depraved "I Saw the Devil" or Yeon Sang-ho's kinetic zombie drama "Train to Busan"), it indulges in the shared emotion of carefully-controlled excess. Na's film feels less and less like a linear drama as it progresses, transforming into an unsettling omen that triggers the horrifying events that occur in the first place. Countless horror movies have tried to mimic this approach to market themselves better, including Netflix's "Incantation," which tries to induce the sensation of being cursed as a viewer interacting with the tale. "The Wailing" achieves this simply by existing, making us feel as if we've witnessed a tragedy we weren't supposed to. It is like peering into the abyss and having the misfortune of having its gaze fixed back on us.

Spoilers for "The Wailing" to follow.

In the damp mountain village of Gokseong, a cop named Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) is baffled by a string of violent homicide cases, which seem to have been triggered by a mysterious illness. As this kind of brutality isn't commonplace in a quiet village like Gokseong, Jong-goo feels unsettled, but his bumbling ways prevent him from immediately launching into action. Even when he sees the killer's clouded eyes and boil-covered skin, he doesn't consider foul play, but chalks it up to a violent outburst where a man slashed his wife and kids to death. As conspiracy theories fly around, the villagefolk find someone to put their blame on: a Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura), whose recent move to the village's outskirts perfectly coincides with the horrific cases.

While Jong-goo grapples with these developments, he is plagued by terrible omens, but all hell breaks loose when his daughter Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee) falls sick and starts having severe seizures. What happens next is a disorienting medley of terror and superstition, but it is also a story about how ill-suited Jong-goo is as a cop who has no idea how to deal with this escalating situation. This presents the perfect opportunity for dark humor, which Na employs at moments when you expect something deeply ominous to happen. Just when you start to find our well-meaning protagonist endearing, you realize that he is in no position to ensure that things will not end in tragedy. In a certain sense, "The Wailing" is about the unwitting failures of a father who couldn't protect the ones he loved because of the choices he made.

I won't be spoiling anything else about the plot, as "The Wailing" is meant to be experienced in all its strange, enchanting glory without foreknowledge about the finer details. What's more, the horror does not lie in the specifics of an action or its consequence, but in the thematic throughline of human prejudices that makes us lose sight of who we are. Just like any disease-as-metaphor horror flick worth its salt, "The Wailing" spends a chunk of its runtime trying to rationalize its spine-chilling events, but comprehends the inexplicable reality of the occult (and associated folkloric traditions) a bit too late. This is when the despair hits us square in the face, as reflected in the gutwrenching final moments of the film.

"The Wailing" is currently available to stream on Prime Video, and you can also rent the movie on Apple TV.