Director: Kim Seong-sik
Year: 2023
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Cheonbaksa toima yeonguso: seolgyeongui bimil
Genre: Exorcism; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
After years of performing various rituals, a phony shaman and his assistant are tasked with helping a special client deal with a suspected possession and decide to investigate, slowly drawing them into a conspiracy involving his troubled past and setting out to stop it from continuing.
Review:
Overall, the film was pretty enjoyable for what it is. One of the better elements of it is the likable setup that mixes together several quite fun elements into being more enjoyable than expected. The initial setup of the character being presented as a fake shaman but turning out to be far more resourceful with genuine supernatural skills is a time-honored tactic in the genre but comes off rather fun here. The interplay makes it seem that their business is to fleece innocent people of their money duplicitously on the basis of genuine supernatural reasoning into a rather elaborate and profitable scam. The greed with which they approach the new case provided by the new girl, only to be confronted with the actual thing that requires him to perform his skillset truthfully and honestly, is a great touch overall. As well, making the family connection it does between him and his long-dead father, who is also quite skilled at dealing with this type of entity since they're both skilled shamans, adds some fine extra elements to this for a fun experience.
That setup provides this with the chance to provide some intriguing and chilling encounters. The opening exorcism attempt on the family manages to showcase the two and how skillfully they handle a situation even though the plan doesn't go that well at the last minute. The later scenes showing them arriving at the village and looking into her sister's case turn into several fine, if overly hokey, haunted house-style sequences featuring the demonic spirit, offering the kind of high-energy sequences that focus on the silly CGI of the being to enhance the spectacle of the sequence. Putting together more of a showcase piece for the supernatural skills in a series of confrontations that bring about the true nature of the demonic force haunting the family, these bring about a fun and overall likable presence. Continuing to build the storyline about his past, which starts the third half into a solid discovery piece that adds some generally goofy scenes into the mix as the comedy throughout the film is quite nice, these features provide quite a lot to like.
There isn't much to hold the film down, but there are some issues at play. One of the major factors with it is a slightly convoluted scenario that arises over the course of the final half. There are simply way too many revelations that come about once the two arrive at the other woman’s house and begin their mission, revolving around secrets surrounding the death of his father, the real reason why it has possessed the daughter, and eventually going out on a quest to recover the sacred artifact needed to prevent its escape. All of these plot threads are quite fine as a whole since they’re building up a well-detailed storyline full of some intriguing elements, but it only ends up making the final half feel rushed with all of these taking place at this particular point in time, resulting in a rushed tempo in this section. The only other real issue to be had is the film’s overuse of CGI, which tends to make things feel far more low-rent than they really should, as the spectacle of the scenes requires it, yet there's no real way to take it other than laughably cheesy. Beyond that, the film is quite enjoyable overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally enjoyable experience let down by some small issues, this is a fairly engrossing genre effort that won’t serve as too ground-breaking or taxing a watch but still comes off fairly well. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of this particular style of genre fare or curious about it, while those turned off by the concept or the other issues on display should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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