Here's what you need to know; following the arrival of a mysterious Japanese stranger in a little Korean town, the townsfolk start to show symptoms of a terrifying illness that drives them to madness and murder. Local police officer Jong-goo is on the case as the violence and hysteria spread, but when it reaches his doorstep, he is forced to resort to more drastic action to protect his family and resist the evil that has taken root in his town, action that unbeknown to him, will bring about the demise of him and everything he loves.
I bought The Wailing on DVD about four years ago on a complete whim. At the time, I had no idea what the film was; what it was about, who was in it or where it even came from, and like a depressingly long list of films, it sat on my DVD shelf all that time, gathering dust. Fast forward to 2020 and I need a horror film for my Halloween special, and I figured that maybe I should get round to watching that one film I bought years ago, The Wailing, and if you're expecting me to gush about how absolutely amazing it is, yeah, I'm about to do that, sorry.
The Wailing's opening moments set up the mystery and lead of the film expectedly well, as Jong-goo is woken in the night by news of a murder but is easily persuaded to stay for breakfast. Once he gets to the crime scene however, the film wastes little time in establishing the threat in the form of a grisly murder scene and a catatonic, cuffed murderer, covered in blood and an ominous rash. Two things are very apparent in this opening sequence, how interesting Jong-goo is as a character, and how ominous and bleak the film's tone will be, as the sequence oozes with unease and dread right through to the title card. The film's characters aren't the most spectacular thing in the world, but therein lies their brilliance; Jong-goo is not a heroic figure, he's lazy and unambitious with a habit of showing up late for his job, he's a bit of an incompetent slob. Yet when push comes to shove, rather than being more heroic and taking the threat head on, Jong-goo is a coward who avoids getting his hands dirty at every opportunity, which inevitably becomes a problem when the peaceful little town he calls home starts seeing violent murders. He starts out ignorant and apathetic to the problems around him, but as the infection strikes close to his heart, he is forced to overcome his aversion to action and conflict to protect his family, in the process being driven to do some pretty morally dubious shit as reason gives way to hysteria and desperation.
The film is ultimately a test of him as a man; a test of his faith and of his will and whether he can overcome his very human weaknesses, but to go further would be going into spoilers. Needless to say though, his journey takes him to some dark places, and by the end you feel the weight of his actions and choices, and his story leaves you with a feeling of tragedy that's hard to shake, it's one of the reasons this film is stuck in my head. The film is full of side characters to pad out the cast, like Jong-goo's sweet and innocent but pragmatic daughter whose innocence is gradually corrupted by the film's events, and his friends who start out as dopey and comical as him, only for the evil to start chipping away at them too. Speaking of evil, over the course of the film, Jong-goo encounters a host of strange and enigmatic people, like the charismatic Shaman his family hires to protect them and a mysterious Woman in White that watches over them. And then there's the Stranger, the old Japanese man at the centre of a whirlwind of rumours and hearsay about his involvement in the deaths. To say this guy is creepy is an understatement, but the film deliberately muddies the waters on whether he's really the evil or just a red herring, depicting him both as a twisted and malevolent being and a weak, frightened old man, making it hard to tell is he is really the evil or just a scapegoat in a confused, frightened little town.
Further muddying things is the Woman in White who keeps appearing to him and Jong-goo, a mysterious figure who is also obviously not what she appears to be, though her role in this story is considerably more vague and open to interpretation. The same can be said of the evil itself, who's true form isn't revealed until the film's final moments. The Wailing's evil presence is a strange thing, initially taking the form of madness and a strange infection, then of a mysterious and sinister outsider, then taking a sharp turn into the supernatural in the film's second half. The Wailing has a very strong mystery surrounding its evil, one with clues that point in contradictory directions that obscure just who or what it really is, and it blends aspects of many different horror tropes; disease, insanity, murder, ghosts, demons, possession, zombies, and the town creep who has something to hide. But in addition to the more obvious barriers to entry in The Wailing is that it's not exactly a crowd pleaser. The Wailing is a very, very story and character driven film and it is a slow burn, a very slow burn. If you watch this film in search of more conventional scares, you will hate it because it doesn't have them. There is no monster or ghost that terrorises the characters, not directly anyway, instead the horror comes from the film's drama as Jong-goo and the people around him become increasingly desperate and scared, and as their peaceful and quiet lives slowly collapse around them.
Another barrier to entry is that the film is stupid long, two and a half hours, making it a bit of an investment to watch, even if it doesn't feel as long as it is. And then the final, most obvious barrier is the language barrier because the film is in Korean, which is a deal breaker for an annoyingly large portion of the horror audience, or just movie audiences in general. But this film might be a bit too dense for mass audiences to begin with because of how slow and psychological it is. The film has gore but never tries to shock you with it, you can go long stretches without really seeing anything scary, which might bore you. On the flip side though, the film spends that time developing its characters and story, and when something scary happens, the film earns it, growing your investment in the story as it unravels its horror. The scares of The Wailing come from how it corrupts the familiar and the comfortable; how a stupid story joked about by Jong-goo and his friends creeps into their real lives and starts destroying them. As the evil seeps in, they try and fail to resist and understand it, ultimately becoming tribal and hostile to anything they perceive as a threat to their normal lives. And when confronted by the evil, Jong-goo is left not knowing who he can trust or even why any of this is happening to him, further adding to the film's tragedy. But equally as satisfying as the film's horror is the conclusion of its mystery, as it becomes clear what is really going on and who or what's behind it.
The film has flavours of all sorts of different horror films like The Exorcist, Sinister and The Crazies, and while I can see myself having a very, very hard time selling this film to others, something about it's really sticking in my head. The Wailing is open to a stupid amount of interpretation; it's ending alone could be mined for hours about just what it means, just who and what people were and whether any of them deserved it, which I think they didn't. In blending so many horror elements into it's evil, the film does a fantastic job of keeping you guessing and wondering what the evil is, like a mysterious shrivelled up plant Jong-goo finds in the beginning of the film which could be one thing that I won't spoil, but ends up being another thing entirely that I also won't spoil. That combined with the film's masterful character development sucks you into the mystery incredibly well, and I ended up being hooked on this film right up until its gut punch of an ending. The film ultimately ends with Jong-goo being forced to decide who he can believe in, with opposing parties pulling him in different directions and him being unable to trust that any of them are really telling the truth. It's a film that rewards you for paying attention and figuring out all the clues, but it's also a film that demands your patience, which isn't that hard when the film itself is so damn good. And while I didn't find it particularly scary, I have grown to love it over repeat viewings, the film is just getting better with time.
You've Already Said It, I'm The Devil
So I might have gushed about how good The Wailing is in this review, but the honest truth is that the more I watched it and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it, to the point that I just want to watch it again, like, right now. The Wailing is definitely not the scariest film I've ever seen, but it's a rare horror film that demands you to have patience and rewards you for doing so, because by the end of this film, though I hadn't yet figured out why, something about it just made me love it. It's a beautifully dark tale about a relatable and flawed man having his faith tested and life torn apart, and its gripping supernatural mystery is absolute gold that sucks me in again and again. It's a shame that the film probably wouldn't be given a second thought by most people and to be honest, it's a shame that I never made time for it myself over the years, because The Wailing a bit special. I thought for a while about how I'd recommend this film, but ultimately my recommendations come from how I feel about a film more than how good or bad it is, so fuck it, The Wailing is a must watch.
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