The Wailing
Evil has no beginning to blame, it continues to exist and navigate like a relentless cycle. It abuses trust by making confusion its greatest strength. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a horrifying film in this capacity. It started itself off as a dark thriller that was kind of funny but there was a snap which changed the entire landscape of the film. Once that happened, I was wishing I could relive those fleeting moments of ignorance but one must venture through the belly of the beast in order to come out the other side changed. Na Hong-Jin might of created the most powerful horror film I’ve ever seen on screen. Not a single jump-scare in sight and yet I felt truly terrified at the scenarios that took place. That is the mark of a great horror. When you remove these expected effects, it becomes more difficult to encapsulate the purpose of the film.
In the face of fear, human beings are their worst enemies. It’s that shared weakness that makes us vulnerable to evil’s game. All it needs to do is confuse us as that’s been a problem for people since the beginning. We panic, act irrationally and ultimately fall victim to following the wrong words which leads to our demise. Truth is the antidote to fear. One must seek it out in order to avoid being cattle to evil’s game. This film is so cruel to this logic as we see Jong-goo turn from a bumbling passive bystander to the shattered man he’s become in the end. It’s painful because of how avoidable it is if you don’t let fear win over yourself. Definitely one of the greatest horror films I’ve watched.