#horror #mystery #exorcism #Na Hong-jin #Kwak Do-won #Hwang Jung-min #Chun Woo-hee #Kunimura Jun #Kim Hwan-hee #2016 #recorded in December, 2021

The Wailing is an expansive and often excruciating horror film. Na Hong-jin’s 2009 debut feature, the action thriller The Chaser, made a huge impression not least for its almost staggering flouting of genre convention. The Wailing, about demonic possession, is similarly uncompromising.

This film received universally positive reviews-‘operating on a level that makes most American cinema seem clunky and unimaginative,’ ‘By turns funny and despairing, this village noir brings the horror of uncertainty.’

Cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, who lensed Na Hong-jin’s and several Bong Joon-ho’s works, shot extensively in natural light, yielding a dusky, mist-shrouded texture. He evokes a sense of obscurity by showing human figures and clues from afar, without closeups or sharp focus.