The Wailing (2016)

I don't remember learning about this South Korean TV movie before. Most likely, it was on an online list of great horrors. In any case, it was the only horror I found left on my Netflix list.

Officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won), a police officer for the village of Gokseong, comes to recognize a pattern: Locals covered in boils are growing violently insane before dying. A theory tying the symptoms to drugs is not entertained for long, and for some reason, nobody even mentions the possibility of a natural disease. Reportedly, the first case emerged shortly after the arrival of an unnamed, reclusive Japanese man (Jun Kunimura), the subject of many rumors, including that he is a ghost. Jong-goo pays him a visit with a translating deacon (Kim Do-yoon) and finds a ghastly shrine but nothing to justify an arrest. When Jong-goo's preteen or early teen daughter (Kim Hwan-hee) shows early signs of the condition, his wife (Jang So-yeon) calls on a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) for an exorcism. A strange woman in white (Chun Woo-hee) often appears with warnings, but Jong-goo doesn't know much about her or whether to trust her.

Unlike the last two horrors I watched, this one clearly earns its "mystery" tag on IMDb. Jong-goo and the viewers are led in more than one direction. Even when it was over, I needed help to understand what happened. I'm still not sure it all comes together.

I'm also unsure it's well titled. There is certainly wailing, but it's nobody's signature. At several points, particularly in the first half, I thought characters were overreacting, or at least not carrying themselves in a way I expect of adults. Cultural difference?

Jong-goo himself is certainly unimpressive in brains, bravery, and adherence to protocol, as fellow police repeatedly express. That's not the only way that characters acknowledge things that could be taken as signs of bad writing. Some viewers take such acknowledgments as a cheap excuse, but I give TW a pass. Given the unworldly premises, it's credible enough.

Scenes vary from mildly eerie to genuinely frightening, thanks partly to inhuman behavior among the affected. Unfortunately, it's hard for me to keep up an appreciation for that for 156 minutes. Moreover, the ending is a downer, which tends to knock a flick down a notch in my estimation.

I'm glad I didn't save TW for the end of the month, but I don't wish I'd skipped it. It challenges the mind more than most horrors, without compromising the purpose.