Grave Encounters

Exhuma (Jang Jae-hyun, 2024)

A wealthy Korean American family hire Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun), a renowned shaman, to vanquish a family curse which takes the life of every firstborn. This endeavour turns out to be too big a job for the mystic and her apprentice Yoo Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun), and so undertaker Go Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin) and geomancer Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) are thrown into the mix. Effectively, a Korean Ghostbusters squad. Superstitious rituals are performed at an ancestor's grave, to remove the life threatening curse, and finally rid it permanently. If all else fails, the remains must be exhumed and then cremated. Given the film's title Exhuma (2024), this isn’t going to go to plan.

Split into several chapters, Jang Jae-hyun's film contains two very distinctive halves. Initially, it focuses on being a supernatural mystery and dealing with bizarre procedures involved in lifting the curse safely. It also casts doubt on the various mystics. Could they potentially be con artists exploiting people’s superstitions and desperation? Meanwhile, the legacy of Japan's occupation of Korea is brought under the spotlight —much like The Wailing (2016). Once a major plot revelation is literally unearthed, the slow burn mystery is substituted with an all out possession folk horror. It's where the film absolutely excels.

Jang Jae-hyun's Korean box office hit can feel a little bloviated during the first half of the film. Excessive fat, like convoluted dialogue and unnecessary exposition, ought to have been trimmed off in the cutting room. Given he wrote Exhuma, it might explain why a script editor wasn't so effective. For instance, as great as the second half of the film is, the victimised family are unceremoniously written out and forgotten. Thankfully, the awesome showdown with the film's demonic antagonist and the stakes involved manage to sidetrack these obvious shortcomings.

Goes without saying, Korean cinema tends be blessed with some marvellous visuals, and Exhuma is no exception. Shot by Lee Mo-gae, the same cinematographer responsible for A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) and I Saw the Devil (2010) (Choi Min-sik also stars in the latter) he competently changes styles to match the two distinctly obvious parts of the film.

Great to see foreign films like Exhuma highlight unique superstitions from around the world. Offering a cultural break from the various clichés borrowed from European folklore. A major reason why the Senegalese genre-bender Saloum (2022) was so refreshing. Hopefully, more foreign films follow in Exhuma's footsteps.

Bottom line: Exhuma is a lore heavy folk horror; addressing sins of the past which permeate throughout the film. The cast, particularly Choi Min-sik's charismatic vape-smoking geomancer, are all solid, and do help buffer the two wildly different tones of the film. Occasionally convoluted with unnecessary exposition, Exhuma still manages to be a highly mesmerising film.