So I recently started a movie viewing session planning on watching a movie recommended by a friend, only to find it wasn’t available in my region. After screaming in rage for several minutes, I randomly picked a movie that was in the little Amazon recommendations list.
That movie was “Exhuma”, a Korean occult horror about strange entitles released during the relocation of a coffin. It’s an intriguing film that I highly recommend.
The setup focuses on a group of four people who have jobs related to various supernatural phenomena. Two are shamans. Another person is a “geomancer,” a job that involves finding burial plots that have good energy. This group is hired by a rich guy to move the coffin of his grandfather, all in the interest of lifting a family curse.
There are a variety of twists and turns. This is one of those movies where stuff happens, and it seems like everything has been solved, but nope, it hasn’t.
The monster effects were not bad, but a little “meh.”
A lot of the story ties into Japan’s invasion of Korea in WWII and ill feelings that understandably persist. Given that I am not an expert in Korean history, it was a little hard to follow, but not impossible.
I did grow up in Hawaii, so I’m somewhat familiar with the iconography of various Japanese spirits like oni that do make an appearance in the film.
My one complaint: the movie repeatedly showed patients in hospital rooms devoid of nurses checking in on them. (This was my great beef with Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby.” At one point, a chicken is smuggled into a hospital room. A chicken!
All in all, this was a real hoot and a nice change of pace from western horror.
