Exhilarating Korean Horror Film Exhuma (2024) Twists Traditional Possession Narrative

Title: Exhuma

First Non-Festival Release: February 22, 2024 (Theatrical Release)

Director: Jang Jae-hyun

Writer: Jang Jae-hyun

Runtime: 134 Minutes

Starring: Kim Sang-deok, Lee Hwa-rim, Yoon Bong-gil

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

Every person has their secrets, as does every family. The tales that these skeletons buried in everyday closets can tell vary in size and importance. Sometimes the secrets that lay buried tell a story far greater than any one person.

A wealthy family seeks out the assistance of a team of shamans to cleanse them of the vengeful presence that is haunting their lives. The wrathful spirit is originally thought to be a deceased relative, but as the crew’s methods fail them, they realize that something far more sinister is afoot. As the gravity sets in on the deep-rooted evil that is focused on the family, the true intentions of the spirit are revealed.

A dark, exciting Korean epic, Exhuma takes possession horror to new heights with its captivating storytelling and lethal frights.

Misleading in its direction, Exhuma makes many smart decisions to keep its spiraling mystery close to its chest. Ritual upon ritual, the shamans do their best to uncover the source of the evil plaguing the family that have requested their services. As they chip away at the mystery, it becomes even more unclear what is happening. The confounding nature of the haunting allows them, and the audience, to continually second-guess the terror onscreen. Every time the group believes they have solved the puzzle, something new pops up to thwart their plans. This might be maddening to those seeking something more linear, but Exhuma ensures that every twist has a purpose.

[SPOILER]

What begins as a typical haunting quickly morphs into something even more terrifying when the horror links to the real-life atrocities committed in Korea by the Japanese during occupation. The sins of the family aren’t the only secrets put on trial in Exhuma. Generations of mistakes buried under the ignorance and fear of those who would rather the challenging narratives of the past remain unbothered drives the violence. The entity attacks those closest to its burial before expanding its reach once it gets a firmer hold in the physical world. Exhuma posits that the past cannot be left to rot and that exposing the mistakes of the past, by good or bad men, is important in moving forward from the grief. Nothing can undo the horror of what has been done, but one can always stop the cycle from continuing.

[/SPOILER]

Beautifully shot and well-designed, Exhuma embraces its slow burn story with its methodical approach to filmmaking. Spanning luxurious mansions to remote and secret graveyards in the country, Exhuma is awash in atmospheric moments that propel its disturbing story to dizzying heights. While the cinematography is not only beautiful it refuses to flinch in the face of the brutality onscreen. Possession and other manners of supernatural evil wreak havoc throughout Exhuma yet it never feels gratuitous. The special effects team does excellent work here in making the carnage realistic while director Tang Jae-hyun and cinematographer Lee Mo-gae do the rest.

Featuring some of the most terrifying imagery and haunting dialogue of the year, Exhuma takes care in crafting unrelenting scares. When it comes to the supernatural, especially demons, all bets are off with how they choose to communicate, or not, with the living. Exhuma depicts their presence not as mere pests but as true harbingers of doom. Because of this, they reach some truly vile depths in terms of their campaign of terror. Tossing their victims around as if they were ragdolls and demanding absolute worship in the same breath, the onslaught of violence makes the horror of Exhuma hard to ignore. It is also never overstated. A mindful approach to pacing allows the film to never get boring despite its hefty 134-minute runtime.

Horror expanded to gargantuan proportions, Exhuma revels in its dense, impactful tale of South Korea’s complicated history with Japan. Filled with horrific imagery, surprising twists, and harrowing confrontations, Exhuma is a delectable slice of Korean horror that is not for the faint of heart. Anchored by its mesmerizing story and affecting performances, Exhuma is a can’t miss Korean horror film that subverts expectations in the most glorious of ways. If you feel like you’ve been cursed with a glut of mediocre watches lately, give Exhuma a spin and see if it can reverse the trend.

Overall Score? 9/10