Verdict
Summary
Highly original in plot and execution, the South Korean horror thriller Exhuma had me riveted almost all the way through, though it goes on too long at 135 minutes. The film packs on so many layers that I believe it would have been better suited to pair them down tighter, which would’ve made the film even more interesting and thrilling.
Plot:
A professional shaman and a “geomancer” come up against an ancient evil when they exhume a body for a client, with the intention of relocating the grave.
Review:
Professional shaman Lee (Kim Go-Eun) and her usual team are called into a very wealthy family’s estate to try to solve their problem: The firstborn sons – from the oldest to the just-born – are experiencing a mysterious illness that seemingly cannot be cured. What’s the solution? Lee determines that the problem originates with the long dead grandfather, whose remote burial site resides high up on a mountain, which is an unorthodox location for a grave. Lee’s counterpart is a “geomancer” – someone whose specialty is knowing the best locations not just for graves, but for buildings. This man is Kim (Choi Min-sik), and he’s stunned by the location of the grave in question: Not only does he determine that the location is horrid, but the ground is diseased and he believes great calamity will befall anyone who tries to disturb the grave. But it’s decided: The grave will be exhumed, and then the body and coffin will both be cremated immediately so to potentially break the curse on the family. The exhuming of the grave goes well enough, but what follows is a disaster: Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the cremation is delayed, and the coffin is opened, which releases the ghost or the spirit within, causing more than just a haunting, but a series of horrific deaths upon the family, as the spirit has vengeance that must be satiated. Not only that, but Kim discovers that there’s another coffin buried at the same site, which is highly unusual, but the anomaly is potentially catastrophic: The other coffin contains an evil spirit that cannot be killed or contained now that it has been exhumed. The ghost reveals itself to be a giant (literally) who is out for blood, and now that the shaman and her team have disturbed these two ghosts, there will be hell to pay to make things right again.
Highly original in plot and execution, the South Korean horror thriller Exhuma had me riveted almost all the way through, though it goes on too long at 135 minutes. The film packs on so many layers that I believe it would have been better suited to pair them down tighter, which would’ve made the film even more interesting and thrilling. I’ve never seen a movie with this plot before, and so I commend writer / director Jang Jae-hyun for a solid genre film here, and if this is any indication, I’d keep my attention peeled for this filmmaker’s next work.
Well Go USA will be releasing Exhuma on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 8th. Special features include a making-of feature and trailers. It’s affordably priced to own.
