Policeman Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) is called to investigate a string of brutal murder-suicides in a sleepy Korean village. Suspicion falls on a Japanese man (Jun Kunimura) recently arrived. When Jong-goo investigates, he finds a creepy shrine and photos of the afflicted townspeople, along with some of their personal belongings but he really goes spare when he discovers his daughter's (Hwan-hee Kim) shoe among them. Sure enough, the little girl comes down with a fever and a rash. Jong-goo calls a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) to perform a ritual exorcism.
I found the ending to be really abrupt and a little confusing so I had to go to Wikipedia and apparently there's a deleted ending that would have made it more clear but the point of the film is ambiguity and fear, so they cut it.
A+ for atmosphere and effects, though. You can feel the hysterical desperation peeling off Jong-goo as the movie progresses and he understands less and less of what's going on. There's zombies, ghosts, and demons (oh my!), an old shaman and a young shaman, hell, even Catholic priests. You would think a kitchen-sink approach like this would be muddled but at every step it feels like the completely right choice.
It is streaming on Shudder.
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