The Wailing
Composite Score: 82.03
Starring: Jun Kunimura, Jung-min Hwang, Kwak Do-won, Woo-hee Chun, Hwan-hee Kim, Jin Heo, Jang So-yeon, Do-yoon Kim, and Kang-gook Son
Director: Na Hong-jin
Writer: Na Hong-jin
Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Box Office: $49.85 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Wailing is 2016’s Korean mystery/horror film about a small-town police officer and his investigation into the increasingly disturbing deaths in his hometown of Gokseong. Writer/director Na Hong-jin crafts a film that is compelling and suspenseful from start to finish, playing on tropes of mysteries and horrors as the audience’s expectations are consistently subverted over and over as the film progresses. Nowhere in the film’s two hour and thirty-six-minute runtime did I ever feel like the film dragged or was disrespecting my time. The story and mystery keep the audience engaged for the film’s fullness, constantly surprising you with what comes next.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
If films about supernatural horror are not your style, this film will probably not be to your liking. At the same time, I say this as someone who usually doesn’t go in for the demonic/exorcist/ghost thing in horror films, but this one worked for me, so I don’t know. Also, if you are a huge fan of the work of Ari Aster (Hereditary or Midsommar), this film is probably also not for you because you’ll never be satisfied with his films again after watching The Wailing. Seriously, I finished this and thought to myself, “This is what Ari Aster wished he could have done with Hereditary.” And please don’t come at me defending Aster’s work because of some 4-hour director’s cuts; The Wailing does his stuff better in the same amount of time as his theatrical runs. (All love for him, he’s good at what he does, but there’s a reason this is on the list and his films aren’t.)
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
The way that The Wailing plays with film tropes keeps the audience guessing for the film’s entirety. From the start, it could be a simple slasher or zombie or even vampire film, but it soon pivots to become an investigative mystery along the lines of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel and then pivots again to become a supernatural horror film in the vein of The Exorcist or Insidious. Within all of these genre twists, the story also keeps the audience guessing at who the true perpetrator of the crimes could be. At first, it seems that the film is trying to make a comment on xenophobia and fear of the outsider and even judging based on outward appearances by having Jung-goo and Sung-bok investigate the Japanese man while the mysterious woman is clearly doing some shady stuff. Then it becomes a film about pandemics and man vs. nature as the different perpetrators break out with physical symptoms after they commit their atrocities. Ultimately, it ends up playing on expectations vs. reality as the audience is left alongside Jung-goo unsure of which villain is the real villain until the final reveal when it is too late but suffer the consequences for his (and our) lack of faith.
The Wailing is a masterclass of maintaining the audience’s attention and a high level of suspense throughout a horror film without giving anything fully away, making it an instant classic worthy of its place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Na Hong-jin’s dive into supernatural horror might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it supersedes most films in that genre’s recent history by playing with expectations and crafting a story with equal parts personal and global implications. The film is streaming for free with ads on Plex and many other similar services. If you want to skip the ads, it is available to rent on most other streaming services.
