Exhuma (2024)

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 HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026

Writer / Director: Jang Jae-hyun

Stars: Choi Min-sik, Kim, Go-eun, Yoo Hai Jin, Lee Do-hyun, Kim Jae-cheol, Kim Sun-young, Kim Ji-an, Jung Sang-cheol, Jeon Jin-ki, Kim Min-joon



Two young shamans (Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun), a feng shui expert (Choi Min-sik), and an undertaker (Yoo Hae-jin) are hired to investigate a wealthy family’s supernatural affliction connected to an ancestral grave.



 What begins as an exhumation ritual gradually turns into a confrontation with buried historical trauma and a much older evil beneath the soil. 



This film has a distinctive identity, built from rituals, symbols, burial customs, shamanism, geomancy, family curses, and folklore that give the horror a texture rarely found in more generic supernatural films. 



Its ritual sequences are especially memorable, staged with conviction that communicates the weight of belief even when the details are unfamiliar. 



The performances help ground a story that could easily become too abstract, keeping the characters watchable while the film moves through increasingly strange territory. 



Ghost story conventions are used to explore history, collaboration, occupation, and violence that gets buried both literally and spiritually. 



The difficulty is that the film asks the viewer to absorb a great deal at once, including Japanese occupation, iron spikes, ancestral grievance, and spiritual warfare, all while tracking a plot that is already dense. 



As I watched this film, I wondered if the various supernatural elements were as familiar to its target Korean audience as, say, the trappings of vampire lore are to a western audience. 



That richness is part of the appeal, but it can also make the symbolism and historical context hard to follow, especially for viewers coming to these folkloric elements from the outside. 



The story also takes longer than it should to reach its major revelations. 



However, the layered historical subtext and specific cultural esoterica that can feel unfamiliar and disorienting also add to its interest.










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