When a newborn is suffering from a mysterious illness, the family call in a South Korean shaman, and we viewers are sucked into one of the most frightening supernatural films to hit the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.
Exhuma
This South Korean supernatural gem was written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun and stars Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jn and Lee Do-hyun. Now before you say to yourself, “I’m not interested in foreign films,” you need to sit down and take notes, because as a connoisseur of foreign films, I was drop dead delighted on how well done and scary Exhuma is.
The literal meaning of the title means exhuming and relocation of a grave, and it is the mystery surrounding a particular grave in South Korea that is harming the infant in the United States. The wealthy Korean family living in the states are suspicious that the curse that haunts every first born in the family might have to do with an unhappy ancestor. They send for a famous Korean shaman, Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and her helper, Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) who informs the infant’s father, Park Ju-yong (Kim Jae-cheol) that the curse is a Grave Call and has to do with his grandfather. It is at this point in the film when Hwa-rim contacts the honoured Geomancer aka Feng shui master, Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) that the film ratches up the suspense and the horror.
Conclusion
If you have AMC+ you can watch Exhuma, and I am hoping that you will. I don’t want to give away to much about the film, but let me tell you this…I was not expecting the outstanding script and characters in what I thought was going to be your average run-of-the mill foreign horror film, but this film was so good that I was still talking about it inside the movie theater while my daughter and I were waiting for A Quiet Place: Day One to start.
Choi Min-sik and Kim Go-eun are so fabulously realistic in their roles as Korean ghostbusters. After they cremate Park’s grandfather’s body, they learn there was something more sinister in that grave and it has to do with the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910 to 1945.
I love watching foreign films. To me, they are a way to learn about other cultures and their beliefs and superstitions. If you think the West has scary goblins, you are mistaken. There is nothing more frightening than an ancient angry ancestor. I see dead people, so I know what I am talking about. Exhuma gets a 5-star rating from me.
