The Wailing Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Wailing Blu-ray Movie Review

The Other.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 2, 2016

The Wailing seems to be this year’s The Babadook , a horror film that comes out of nowhere and takes the critical world by storm, while also not necessarily hewing to traditional horror tropes every step of the way. Like The Babadook, The Wailing traffics in what might be termed a more interior, psychological aspect, though unlike The Babadook, it’s a sometimes gruesome tour through what seems to be the after effects of a kind of St. Vitus' Dance marauding through an isolated Korean village where a series of horrific murders occurs. Weirdly comic at times, the film features a lead investigator named Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) who might be thought of as a Korean version of a Keystone Cop, afraid of his own shadow and dangerously incapable of crowd control. That gives elements of The Wailing a perhaps unsettling humor that plays a bit oddly against both the supernatural aspects of the tale as well as what almost becomes a mythic battle between good and evil. The film is a brilliant examination of paranoia sweeping through a “closed” (or at least insular) society, with fear of “the other”, in this case a recent Japanese emigré, as one of the motivating factors behind the panic that sweeps the little town of Goksung (the original Korean title of the film). While The Wailing may strike some as too ambiguous for its own good, or at least for logical explanations of what’s taking place, the film is strikingly original and often quite disturbing.

The Wailing begins with an epigraph culled from the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus importuned the Apostles to accept his resurrected presence as the “real thing”. Some Biblically astute viewers might actually start thinking of another version of this story, related in the Gospel of John, where the term “doubting Thomas” got its origin, for in a way, various characters in the film aren’t quite ready to accept what’s going on at face value. When Jong-gu arrives at the first murder scene, the initial hypothesis is that the killer, who sits stunned and speechless outside the crime scene, has ingested wild mushrooms and gone on a psychedelically inspired killing spree. That “rational” explanation starts chafing against an almost folklorish account that’s making the rounds of the town about the new Japanese outsider, one who is supposedly in an atavistic state out in the woods, eating downed animals while gazing around menacingly with glowing red eyes.

Part of what gives The Wailing its unique feel is the distinctly Eastern way people respond to various traumas throughout the film. There’s an almost bizarre reluctance on the part of some of the cops to actually engage the populace in general and indeed the main suspect, the Japanese immigrant who is known simply as The Outsider (Jun Kunimura). This tendency is nowhere more obvious than in a riveting scene where Jong-gu takes a police acolyte and a local priest to the Outsider’s shack in the woods and begins investigating. The other cop actually finds a spooky hidden room that is filled with photographs of and personal items belonging to the victims, while the priest deals with the Outsider’s equally spooky pit bull, who is going ballistic. When the Outsider shows up, no one really even engages him, aside from a cursory apology from the priest, and the scene ends in a kind of stalemate with the participants just sitting in the room with each other, not even making consistent eye contact. Could you imagine a scene like that playing out in a traditional Western horror film, especially one with a policeman trying to track down a culprit, supernaturally inclined or otherwise?

In other ways, The Wailing is at least a bit more traditional, especially in a subplot involving Jong-gu’s adorable little girl Hyo-jin (an extremely impressive Kim Hwan-hee) who starts exhibiting symptoms of the “disease” spreading throughout the town, one which typically ends in death for either the sufferer of the ailments, or indeed for victims of the sufferer. This plot arc plays like a Korean version of The Exorcist, down to the extended sequences featuring a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) who is hired to exorcise what is assumed to be a demon which has taken control of Hyo-jin. Parts of these sequences play awfully close to Ioruba or Voodoo scenes in films as disparate as Black Orpheus or The Believers. It’s also notable that the shaman is one of the more contemporary characters in the film, tooling about in a sports car and sporting a man bun himself. In fact, The Wailing consistently draws contrasts between an ancient, even archaic, way of life, replete with folkloristic belief systems, and a burgeoning modern world that has arisen around (or maybe even in spite of) them.

While the mood that The Wailing creates is palpable, especially in the film’s late going, I’m personally not so sure some of the sillier aspects of the film in its early going really connect organically to the whole or in fact help the film in the long run. Aside from Jong-gu’s general ineptitude, there are all sorts of little “bits” scattered throughout the film, like a brief detour about adult diapers and, later, a sequence involving a health food store owner getting struck by lightning, a scene which tries to toe the line between horror and comedy but which ultimately tips over pretty clearly into the humor camp. All of this seems downright odd once the film goes for the gusto once Hyo-jin seems to be in the thrall of something satanic, and then a nice ambiguity is pursued as another potential suspect enters the fray, leaving a distraught Jong-gu trying to decide what the truth is.

The other potential stumbling block for some viewers will be the film’s length, which clocks in at over two and a half hours. In a couple of the ironically pretty brief supplements included on this release, director Na Hong-jin discusses his wish to craft a film which builds its horror slowly, even lethargically. In this regard, The Wailing may recall efforts like The Shining which like to luxuriate in nothing (or not much) seeming to be happening, until of course all hell breaks loose. Finally, the film is lacking a bit of internal logic, something that Jong-gu touches on when he's in discussions with a character who may either be his savior or his downfall. The whole reason this particular demonic presence has visited Goksung isn't adequately explained, and that may leave any moralistic subtext feeling patched on.

The Wailing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Wailing is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Technical data on this film is a bit hard to come by online, but the closing credits reference Arri cameras, and this certainly has the look of Arri digital photography, for both good and (occasional) ill. The film is rather strikingly scenic, with director Na Hong-Jin and DP Hong Kyung-pyo offering languid interstitials of the sylvan Korean countryside, some of which are almost breathtakingly beautiful (see screenshot 2). A lot of the film plays out in rainy environments, and detail levels are occasionally diminished in the stormiest scenes, especially when some of the ubiquitous blue color grading is employed. Other sequences have equally prevalent yellow color grading, and detail levels, especially in some very dimly lit scenes involving the Outsider in his lair, don't really offer much in the way of fine detail or shadow definition. I've tried to supply at least a couple of screenshots showing the color grading approaches the film offers. In decent lighting and without obvious tweaking of the palette, detail levels are generally excellent, providing some squirm inducing looks at the boils and rashes that victims of the mysterious disease sweeping the town suffer. While the film has its fair share of gore, it's relatively conservatively handled, often shown in somewhat dark environments where all the ghastly details aren't easily visible. Contrast and black levels are both solid, and there are no issues with image instability.

The Wailing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wailing features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in the original Korean, with optional English subtitles). The film achieves some of its most potent surround activity in simply detailing the sounds of the environment, especially out in the forest where the Outsider takes up residence. Some of the torrential downpours depicted in the film also (appropriately) wash through the side and rear channels. An interesting score which sometimes uses ethnic instruments like gongs also resides quite comfortably in the surrounds. Dialogue is cleanly rendered, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

The Wailing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Beginning of The Wailing (1080i; 1:51) is a brief EPK with interviews and some behind the scenes footage.


• Making Of (1080i; 4:56) is another pretty brief piece cobbled together from some of the very same interviews as in the preceding featurette, as well as more behind the scenes footage.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:54)

The Wailing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not quite sure The Wailing really hangs together the way some of the best horror films do, but there's no denying the mood this film builds over its arguably too lengthy running time. Some may, like I did, find the comedic elements not especially helpful, but once the film turns toward its "darker" proclivities, things get increasingly disturbing. Technical merits are strong, and even without much in the way of supplements, The Wailing comes Highly recommended.