the wailing

There's a fine line between misleading an audience for effect and tricking them out of spite. M. Knight Shyamalan lost most of his credibility for the latter, but he's not the only filmmaker desperate to pull a fast one on jaded genre fans who think they can second-guess every twist and turn. The Conjuring and Insidious franchises both make a habit out of playing a cinematic shell game involving demonic possession with surprisingly good results. But Hong-jin Na's The Wailing (2016) does them all one better, shuffling angels, demons, sinners and saints until the audience is just as supernaturally suspicious as the characters in the film.

When the residents of a small South Korean village begin killing each other - and themselves - the local police are in way over their heads, particularly Sgt. Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) whose general laziness and lack of ambition make the murders more of an inconvenience than a challenge. Rumors begin to spread about a Japanese newcomer whose arrival seems to coincide with all the trouble. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman in white confesses details about the crimes no one else could know.

Drawn into the investigation after his daughter shows signs of the same mental illness, Jong-goo confronts the Japanese man in an attempt to scare him off only to discover what appears to be insurmountable evidence of his guilt. Conspiring with other locals, he manages to rid the town of the mysterious stranger. But his daughter's situation only becomes more unstable, forcing the family to hire a shaman to exorcise the evil spirit involved. But the evil's source is still in question. And Jong-goo seems to be making all the wrong choices.

The Wailing doesn't just toy with the mechanics of its plot; it shifts dramatically in tone from a relatively light-hearted ghost story to a soul-destroying family tragedy. For some, director Hon-jin Na's creative choices will be uneven and long-winded; admittedly the movie, at 2.5 hours, runs about a half-hour too long. But the carefully shaded characters are what make the film so different from the usual jump-scare, found-footage friendly horror entries of late. The Wailing is gorgeously shot but rotten to the core. And it's that spiritual and cinematic dichotomy last leaves such a lasting impression.

Well Go USA debuts the film on an equally impressive looking Blu-ray with subtitles, a trio of bonus features (The Beginning of the Wailing, Making Of and a theatrical trailer) and attractive slipcover packaging.