If Thailand has The Medium (2021) and China has Incantation (2022), then Korea has Exhuma! The three films share a common premise about the practice of black magic and curses of all kinds. However, it seems like Exhuma has its own storyline that is more interesting to follow without any excessive horror.
Exhuma itself tells the story of a group of people who were able to perform mystical practices to ward off evil spirits using spells or feng shui skills so that many people were saved; whether dead or alive. But all of that comes at a “high” price.
Exhuma movie summary
- Release year 2024
- Genres Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Director Jang Jae Hyun
- Cast Choi Min Shik Kim Go Eun Yoo Hae Jin Lee Do Hyun
Hwa Rim (Kim Go Eun) is a psychic. He works with his close friend, Bong Gil (Lee Do Hyun) to help many people who need their help. Once they were called to Los Angeles to meet the head of a very wealthy family named Park Ji Young (Kim Jae Cheol).
Ji Young said that starting from his father, he and his son who is currently being treated both have the same disorder. They often hear screaming. Ji Young is curious about what really happened to her family. In response to this question, Hwa Rim went to see Ji Young’s child.
When touching the child, Hwa Rim had a premonition that everything came from Ji Young’s great-grandfather. He died in a disheveled state, his body not even covered with a shroud. This is what makes Ji Young’s family haunted. Hwa Rim calls Ji Young’s great-grandfather’s spirit ‘The Call from the Grave’.
Hwa Rim and Bong Gil then go to their other colleagues, Sang Deok (Choi Min Sik), a feng shui expert, and the funeral home manager, Yeong Geun (Yoo Hae Jin), to ask for help. Hwa Rim wants to pray for Ji Young’s great-grandfather’s soul and cremate him so that his soul can rest in peace and not bother Ji Young’s family anymore.
As soon as his family showed him the location of the grave, Sang Deok was confused and speechless. This place is located on a mountain facing north, surrounded by wild forests. Although according to the family, they have their own grave, but why is Ji Young’s grandfather’s grave in such a place?
The process of dismantling the tomb has been carried out. Hwa Rim warns the diggers to follow her instructions, while she and Bong Gil begin chanting a spell so that Ji Young’s grandfather’s spirit will not be disturbed. Once the tomb has been successfully removed. Sang Deok realizes something is strange. He tells Hwa Rim that it is a cursed tomb.
Hwa Rim was aware of this. After that, he immediately prayed for the coffin and asked the family’s permission to proceed with immediate cremation. The family agreed and had it cremated. As they left, a digger who was returning home was shocked to see a red snake with a strange head emerging from the grave.
Unfortunately, this turns things into chaos. The snake looks like part of a cursed tomb. A sudden rainstorm made the cremation process impossible. Yeong Geun asked his colleagues at the crematorium to entrust the coffin until the next day. Thinking everything was over, the four of them went home.
Sang Deok still felt something strange so he tried to go to the nearest temple. He wants to learn about the tomb and the monk named Gitsune, who presided over Ji Young’s grandfather’s funeral. However, the monk guarding the temple did not know the monk and began to explain about the tomb that Sang Deok asked about.
According to the monk, the tomb on the mountain is the tomb of a high-ranking official in the past, who played an important role in the Japanese and Korean war. After his death, many people believed that there was treasure also placed in the tomb, so people scrambled to find it.
One of the treasure seekers was the crematorium guard. He tries to open the cursed chest just as Hwa Rim and Bong Gil arrive to check the condition of the chest under Sang Deok’s orders. When the chest is opened, the evil spirit will appear and roam freely to take revenge on its descendants.
One by one, Ji Young’s grandfather’s descendants began to die, until finally the evil spirit wanted to end the life of the child in Ji Young’s care. However, Hwa Rim, Bong Gil, Sang Deok, and Yeong Geun managed to stop it by burning the chest; Ji Young’s grandfather’s spirit disappeared and everyone survived.
The next morning, one of the gravediggers who killed the red snake tries to contact Sang Deok. He said that since the snake was exhumed and killed, the gravedigger has not been able to live in peace. Sang Deok returned to the grave to find the snake so he could bury it properly.
When he arrived at the tomb and found the snake in question, Sang Deok was shocked to find another, larger coffin placed under Ji Young’s grandfather’s coffin. He immediately contacted Hwa Rim and the others. The chest was very large and locked with many layers of barbed wire, as if to prevent what was inside from leaking out.
They immediately knew that it was no ordinary chest and wanted to burn it immediately, whatever was inside had more evil power. Unfortunately, while they were resting at a nearby temple, the creature in the coffin managed to escape. This creature is a demon possessing the body of a vengeful ancient Japanese soldier.
Hwa Rim and the others must now destroy the creature before it causes greater chaos. They did this together despite risking their lives. Bong Gil and Sang Deok were even seriously injured. Sang Deok now understands that Ji Young’s grandfather’s breasts were just a trick to cover up a real disaster.
Reviews and reviews of the movie Exhuma
Big decoy
We will believe that the entire story of the movie Exhuma is about Hwa Rim and her friends defeating the evil spirit of Ji Young’s grandfather, who is quite difficult to defeat and is causing a threat everywhere. Almost half of the movie shows how hard Hwa Rim worked until everything was completed well.
However, we were suddenly shocked to learn that the great disaster was actually the coffin of an ancient Japanese soldier lying in the same tomb. When I discovered this new problem, I suddenly choked up as I realized that all of us, the audience, had been fooled. Smart move by Jang Jae Hyun!
Another feeling of horror
If you have ever seen movies like this like The Medium or Incantation, you will agree that these movies have many scenes that are just about ghosts and how to perform black magic. It all contained a sense of horror enough to linger in the mind for a while.
In contrast to the movie Exhuma, director Jang Jae Hyun seems to want the audience to be able to enjoy the movie without having to close their eyes throughout the story. Jae Hyun brings a sense of horror by revealing many truths that we misunderstand, then by having the player work to paralyze the evil spirits that exist.
Therefore, there are no heart-stopping, mind-blowing jump scares that make the audience truly confused. Instead of being scared, we will have to play with our imaginations about what Hwa Rim and her friends will do to survive even though it cannot be easily predicted.
Unique exorcism ritual
In addition to focusing on the plot, we will also be given a bit of knowledge about how magicians in Korea, especially in Korea, work when they want to exorcise evil spirits or fight spirits. ghost. This is shown through Hwa Rim’s appearance at the beginning of the ritual of dismantling Ji Young’s grandfather’s grave.
Hwa Rim seemed haunted by something, she started dancing uncontrollably to the beat of Bong Gil’s drum. Hwa Rim also prepared 5 pigs as ‘commanders’ so that the grave diggers would not be haunted by evil spirits when opening the grave. Interesting but enough to give you goosebumps.
This movie is your alternative to watching horror shows amidst the onslaught of local horror movies which are super numerous and can be boring. Exhuma has a good, unpredictable plot. This is why Salenhanh recommends you watch Hwa Rim’s story.