The Wailing

Mash-up is too sloppy a term to apply to The Wailing. The latest offering from a director who works across multiple genres within a single film, like an F1 driver moving expertly through the gears. But when the Guardian calls Hong-jin Na Korea’s “new genre master”, you can only ask “Which one?”

Na caught the attention of western cineastes with 2008’s The Chaser, then two years later, The Yellow Sea – which slid outrageously from social realism to manga-grade carnage. Even before The Wailing he had joined a list of directors, including Kim Jee Woon and Je-Kyu Kang, who demonstrate that when it comes to intelligent big screen thrills, Korea knows best.

Here Na borrows freely from his better known contemporary Bong Joon-Ho with his ability to light moments of dread with heartfelt emotion and crowd-pleasing comedy. Even Kwak Do-won as The Wailing's lovably incompetent rural police chief – who's faced with a chain of unexplained murders linked to an outbreak of sickness and insanity – could be a clone of Bong’s archetypal hangdog lead (Song Kang-ho). Small town suspicions for the murders fall easily on to a Japanese outsider, who's eventually challenged head on in an electrifying and rhythmically choreographed séance. But does this malevolence originate from an actual demon, or is it simply the community’s bigotry and superstition turned inward?

When other directors would be winding their narrative down, Na shows his signature touch by accelerating into the third act, an unrelenting freefall into darkness. While the modern film fan is so often short-changed on smarts and thrills, The Wailing's challenging themes and delicious unpredictability will leave you in its debt.

Extras

There are little to talk of, barely more than decoration. A trailer, short un-insightful making-of feature and something called The Beginning of The Wailing, which, with its regurgitated footage and dialogue, feels not dissimilar to the making-of. Considering the strength of the main feature, who cares?