The film stars Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee, Kim Hwan-hee, and Jun Kunimura. The cast gave uniformally strong performances. The cast's strength lies in its eclectic mashup of familiar horror film archetypes and fresh twist on small-town crime drama. The cast captured the all-too human desperation of its key characters. Na Hong-jin and the cast lets viewers fall into the characters' frustrations, but they are dogged, not downtrodden. The film shows their lives, however tortured, outside the murders - like Heat without antagonistic rivalries or a more political Zodiac.
Restrained but disturbing, The Wailing is a creepily effective, if at times confusing, horror movie. The film is a triumph of stylish, darkly absurdist horror that even manages to strike a chord of Shakespearean tragedy – and evokes a sense of wonder anew at all the terrible things people do to themselves and each other. There are plenty of jumps, an amazing story line and superb acting. How much you appreciate the film will largely depend on how effective you feel its big revelation is. The film boasts a suffocating atmosphere and a disjointed storyline that turns the screws on your nerves while leaving you to puzzle over the plot. Na Hong-jin's psychological skin-chiller painstakingly teases apart the traumas that bind a widower, his teen daughters... and his high-strung second wife in a suffocating web of guilt, suspicion and fear. Na Hong-jin's serious approach has its merits, but it also creates some problems that mar, without ruining, the film's effectiveness. A very tasty exercise in psychological horror. Despite its third-act problems, the film easily passes the scare test. The atmosphere of mounting dread is matched by just-right performances, design and camerawork. This is a carefully structured film about xenophobia, as well as horror. They don't resolve every disturbing moment or confusing element: they leave some questions hauntingly unanswered. I like what it's trying to do -- use a stranger-comes-to-town-whilst-brutal-murders-take-place story surface to tell a tale of xenophobia, blame, and madness -- but was disappointed in the conventional tactics it used. There's more rank dread and inscrutable mystery in any one scene of this South Korean psychological thriller than in all the American horror films of the past ten years. Even at its most maddening and cute, the elaborate interplay between hallucination and reality rewards attention. Even though its components may be familiar, it is made with precision and sophistication and is, by default, better than any original American horror film of the past few years. Na Hong-jin leaps to the forefront of Asian horror with this brilliantly executed psychological nightmare.
Simon says The Wailing (곡성) receives:
Restrained but disturbing, The Wailing is a creepily effective, if at times confusing, horror movie. The film is a triumph of stylish, darkly absurdist horror that even manages to strike a chord of Shakespearean tragedy – and evokes a sense of wonder anew at all the terrible things people do to themselves and each other. There are plenty of jumps, an amazing story line and superb acting. How much you appreciate the film will largely depend on how effective you feel its big revelation is. The film boasts a suffocating atmosphere and a disjointed storyline that turns the screws on your nerves while leaving you to puzzle over the plot. Na Hong-jin's psychological skin-chiller painstakingly teases apart the traumas that bind a widower, his teen daughters... and his high-strung second wife in a suffocating web of guilt, suspicion and fear. Na Hong-jin's serious approach has its merits, but it also creates some problems that mar, without ruining, the film's effectiveness. A very tasty exercise in psychological horror. Despite its third-act problems, the film easily passes the scare test. The atmosphere of mounting dread is matched by just-right performances, design and camerawork. This is a carefully structured film about xenophobia, as well as horror. They don't resolve every disturbing moment or confusing element: they leave some questions hauntingly unanswered. I like what it's trying to do -- use a stranger-comes-to-town-whilst-brutal-murders-take-place story surface to tell a tale of xenophobia, blame, and madness -- but was disappointed in the conventional tactics it used. There's more rank dread and inscrutable mystery in any one scene of this South Korean psychological thriller than in all the American horror films of the past ten years. Even at its most maddening and cute, the elaborate interplay between hallucination and reality rewards attention. Even though its components may be familiar, it is made with precision and sophistication and is, by default, better than any original American horror film of the past few years. Na Hong-jin leaps to the forefront of Asian horror with this brilliantly executed psychological nightmare.
Simon says The Wailing (곡성) receives:
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