Movie Review: Goksung (The Wailing) (2016)

Goksung (The Wailing) (2016) written and directed by Hong-jin Na

Local policeman Jong-goo (Do-wan Kwak) has a tough time with nightmares about horrible things happening. If that wasn't bad enough, bad things do start happening in the local village. Mysterious and gruesome murders take out entire families, often with one family member (who killed all the others, i.e. the perpetrator) committing suicide. The theories that assign blame are all wild speculations, from bad mushrooms to the recently-arrived old Japanese man (Jun Kunimura). The investigation is slow and depressing but becomes more urgent when Jong-goo discovers that his daughter (Hwan-hee Kim) has started changing and may be the next perpetrator. Jon-goo's mother-in-law contacts a local shaman to help get rid of the evil presence, if it's not already too late.

The movie starts like a police procedural but quickly morphs into a horror film. Jong-goo is a bit hapless and very passive at the start. He gets more active once he's in jeopardy. The atmospheric surroundings create more tension in an already tense situation. The setting is beautiful and also haunting with all the fog and rain. The plot suffers from having too many red herrings. A lot of significant scenes don't make sense with how things turned out at the end. The ending is horrifying but fails to pull things together, leaving me as a viewer unsatisfied.

Mildly recommended--the atmosphere is great and the story is intriguing until they fail at the ending.