‘Exhuma’ bewitches both fans, non-fans of occult movies
The supernatural occult film “Exhuma” is becoming a sensational success. It is expected to be the first film to hit the 10 million viewer mark this year.
Released on Feb. 22, the film follows young shamans, Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun), who team up with a feng shui expert and a mortician to solve mysterious events surrounding a wealthy U.S.-based family by exhuming its ancestor’s grave in a remote Korean village.
The mystery thriller by Jang Jaehyun continues its reign, topping the Korean box office, drawing 6.6 million viewers as of Wednesday, according to Korean Film Council data. The movie surpassed the six million viewer mark Sunday, and it took 11 days for the film to reach the milestone, a week faster than last year’s highest-grossing film, “12.12: The Day,” a historical saga about Korea’s 1979 military coup.
Fans are making a buzz on social media, showing off their fascination with the film. They are posting loads of illustrated fan art of the main characters and hunting for Easter eggs in the film. The film’s distributor used one of the fan artworks for the movie’s special poster to thank the fans.
While occult is usually not a high-selling genre here, the film is drawing both occult fans and nonfans and moviegoers, of all age groups.
Park Sung-hye, in her late 40s, said she is not a horror or thriller fan. But she had to come to see the movie. “The film’s trailer has intrigued my curiosity about this occult film. Kim performing shamanistic rituals looked really charismatic. Even as a Korean already familiar with the ritual, the scene was really strong and fresh. Her acting performance was literally jaw-dropping,” she said, after watching it with her husband at a theater in Gyeonggi Province. “It was definitely a film worth the ticket price.”
Kim Bo-mi, 19, said she couldn’t take her eyes off the screen, saying, “The acting of all four main characters was just crazy. For me, the four looked like Avengers facing the evil spirit.”
Viewers especially recognized the acting of Kim and Lee, who broke away from the stereotype of Korean shamans — older adults in traditional “mubok” (shaman’s robe). These young shamans sport hip fashion items — Kim wears a stylish long leather coat and Converse sneakers, and Lee boasts a cool ponytail and tattoos of Chinese characters covering his body.
Chunga, a young shaman running the YouTube channel “Shinyeo Chunga,” said she was shocked when she saw the duo’s acting.
“Hwa-rim shakes up her shoulders in the middle of the shamanistic ritual, frowning. It is what actually happens to shamans, which means the spirit is coming to the shaman,” she said on YouTube. “The part she was reciting the whole script while hitting the gong was really impeccable. Even for me, reciting the whole script — written in Sanskrit or Chinese — was a challenge, taking a couple of years to recite it with ease. I really want to applaud her detailed acting.”
Experts say the film’s subject of shamanism itself and the director’s genius use of incorporating a nail-biting thriller with the cathartic crime caper movie elements. It worked very well.
“Viewers in their 50s and 60s don’t like occult movies. If it were produced like the West’s typical exorcist film, they wouldn’t have come to see the film. They came because it tells the story about Korean shamanism,” culture critic Ha Jae-keun said. “I think word of mouth also worked positively for this film. Social media buzz trickled down to the older generation.”
Another culture critic, Jung Dukhyun, said its wider appeal stems from the film’s clever mix of occult and caper genres. “I would say this film is a special occult film. It is occult, but it also has elements of caper film like ‘The Thieves’ (2012). The four characters have their special powers, and as a team, they unearth the truth and fight the evil. This gives catharsis to viewers.”
Viewers in their 50s and 60s don’t like
occult movies.
If it were produced like the West’s typical exorcist film, they wouldn’t have come to
see the film.