“The vicious emerges.
After tracing the origin of a disturbing supernatural affliction to a wealthy family’s ancestral gravesite, a team of paranormal experts relocates the remains—and soon discovers what happens to those who dare to mess with the wrong grave.” – Letterboxd Synopsis
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for so long. It’s just always escaped me, but the vibes and alone always piqued my interest. I’m glad I finally sat down and gave it a full chance, and I’m so glad I did because this is one of the coolest movies I’ve ever watched.
Knowing nothing about Korean folklore at all, but being a lover of folklore in general. The hook for this movie was great to me. Four people who specialize in different areas but are ultimately part of the folklore community are hired to investigate a curse that’s been going through this family ever since the grandfather died. That’s interesting enough, but then you add the layered mystery of who the grandfather was, why is there a curse in the first place? As things start to unravel, it becomes a story about not only family and legacy, but country and, necessarily, pride, but wanting what’s best for it. All wrapped up in this amazing mystical real world. It was as fascinating as it was cool.
There’s something about this cast of characters that just oozes cool, and I love a group of characters that have good chemistry and history between them. All four of the main group had their quirks, their moments. Lee Hwa-Rim was definitely more of a focus than the others, but everyone had their part to play in this supernatural mystery. All of their talents went to use. If this became a series of movies, I’d be so seated to watch more adventures with them. Beyond that, even the other characters are great.
I loved the way this movie was shot. I sadly haven’t watched many Korean films, but the ones I have all have a quality to the way they’re shot that makes everything feel so real and grounded. Which really immersed me whenever they were doing a ritual or whenever something supernatural was happening. They really let these scenes breathe in a way that I feel some movies would have shied away from, or more so trimmed down, but again, it’s that immersion and clear love for folklore that breathes through these scenes when you allow them the space in this movie to play out.
So yeah, this was a short one, but I really enjoyed Exhuma. It gave me a really cool look into folklore and history that I knew either little or nothing about, and it really immersed me in that culture. The characters were fun and had great chemistry; I would love to see a sequel or multiple with these guys going on multiple adventures. And it had a good message. Despite the actual runtime being pretty long, I never felt bored for one second.
Exhuma – 8/10
