Director: Huh Jong-ho
Year: 2018
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Moolgwoe, Jakseoui Byeon, Jackseoui Byeon: Attack of Strange Object; Mulgae; Monster; The Accident: Attack of the Monstrous Thing
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
During the Joseon dynasty, rumors of a strange creature lurking in the area upsetting the citizens force the prime minister to divert his attention away from a devastating plague to deal with the creature by assembling a team of villagers to hunt it down and stop it once and for all.
Review:
This was a pretty enjoyable creature feature. Among the film’s better elements is the rather impressive setup here designed to provide an understanding of the general political climate and civilian lifestyle at the time. With the country embroiled in chaos with the plague spreading throughout the country and no one able to stop it, the blame on other factions trying to usurp the throne and associating with undesirable individuals as a means of ensuring a peace-of-mind about the situation is the perfect counterbalance to the simplistic lifestyle of the farmers. Living off the land and being honorable rather than engaging in the misguided political mind-games that are taking place in the city, there’s a fine contrast here which enables us to sympathize with them a lot easier.
That comes into play nicely with the inclusion of the monster and its attacks against the population. With no witnesses but plenty of evidence of its presence through the deformed and disease-riddled bodies left behind, this sends out the search party which is quite fun as the group treks through the wilderness looking for the creature where they manage to find it as it wipes out nearly everyone involved. The big finale, where it attacks the castle and causes all sorts of havoc running through scores of guards and other personnel in a huge, extended series of destructive rampages across the area killing everyone and setting up for some wild action scenes that are utilized throughout here. Alongside the fantastically realistic look of the creature, these here generate a lot to like with the film.
This one does have a few problems to it. Among the biggest issues is the rather unnecessary and unfunny comedic relief intended to provide a balance to the film like so many of these Korean efforts. Rather than give the film some funny lines or moments designed to ingratiate us to the characters, instead, it ends up as nothing more than wasted opportunities here making the film far longer than it needs to be with such pointless scenes as the family fighting and teasing each other playfully in the stream or struggling to understand his position in the army before they were born makes him a great fighter too be chosen to lead the fight against the creature. Even the humor of her being a woman in the guard ranks doesn’t come off as funny either and just seems like a waste.
The other detrimental factor is the confusing and somewhat nonsensical political intrigue storyline that manages to take away a lot of the fun of a more traditional monster-on-the-loose storyline that this is going for. Rather than get bogged down in the specifics of the creature going on a rampage and seeing it decimating the population, this one tends to focus more on the rather nonsensical storyline of the rivals clamoring for control of the throne under the assumption of the creature being a hoax even though the plague afflicting everyone is real. Using that as the basis for seizing power makes no sense when the evidence of the charred, plague-riddled bodies sporting inhuman wounds so the insistence on that not being the case is strange and misguided. Otherwise, this was a lot of fun without much else wrong.
Overview: ***.5/5
With a lot of fun creature action and a serviceable background story for what’s going on, this one has a lot to like here that helps it to overcome some of the more obvious flaws that show up to hold it down. Give this a look if you’re a fan of creature features or a big fan of Asian horror like this, while those that don’t appreciate this style or Asian genre fare should heed caution.
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