The Wailing

Audience Reviews

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Theodore M Apr 13, 2019 I expected it to be better from the reviews. Maybe something is lost in the English translation. I remember thinking that Chinese people swear a lot. But they are under a lot of stress in the movie. Also I was shocked that they don't use beds, just padded mats on the floor. It was interesting to see what Eastern demons are like. See more

Albus S Apr 10, 2019 Hong-jin Na is another South-Korean director that got a few tricks up his sleeve. This is like a mixture of some classic Asian horror with some police setting. It's like "Memories of murder" in some ways, it's like "Oldboy" in other ways. Some mysterious sickness is flooding a small town. People get ugly rashes and scars, acting all crazy. People die and things are gory. A policeman is trying to figure out the entire deal but get's involved as his daughter is showing symptoms of having the disease. A mysterious fella is there, some claim he is a ghost and the one that's doing all the ugliness. There are shamen and witches here, stirring things around in the often rainy weather. A great atmosphere here and a very chilling film. Few jump scares, but some very intese scenes - especially in the last hour or so. One of few bad things here are the length of it. It's 150 minutes long, about 30 or 40 minutes too long. I never got that into it until the suspence added up, a flat mid part is kind of a mood killer. It's also a bit repitative. It twists it up a whole lot and there are many unanswered questions here - both a good and a bad touch. Gory and well acted, lovely shots with great sound. It's a typical thriller in some ways, but the horror stays strong here as well. Add in some classic, easy laughs and you have yourself a generous portion of genre mixing. It works. I felt entertained, scared and satisfied. 8 out of 10 projectile vomiting moments. See more

Luke P Mar 10, 2019 The Wailing is a dragged out and confused movie that overuses cliches of the Asian and American horror genres. Main characters and some situations are so goofy, it's near impossible to feel empathy for the protagonists or really getting into it (one scene in particular is straight out of Brain Dead, however comedy is not the intended effect). The cinematography is quite decent to be fair but acting still feels very amateurish, and it can get painful past 90min. Finally, the wailing almost tries too hard to confuse spectators for the sake of plot twists rather than actually telling a story. Overall, it reminded me of Paranormal Activity in the sense that the ending will still leave you on the edge of your seat to know what actually happens and try to make sense of so much nothingness. Whether it's worth it or not is in the eye of the beholder. See more

Draco S Jan 30, 2019 What an annoying movie. (Spoliers) I gave it 1 instead of 0.5 because the shaman hex scene was arresting and something "possessed" me to stick this movie through to the end. I don't remember the last time I saw such an irritating movie. Every police officer and human male in this movie is a bumbling, cowardly, inept, ineffectual, clumsy, lazy, pitiful idiot. 7 year olds with agoraphobia would make better police officers The adult(??) men gently hit a murderous zombie on the back with branches, scream and fall helplessly on their backs at every threat, and spend most of their time gawking in horror and crying like infants. They are the male equivalents of the women in horror movies who break a heel and fall and lay there helplessly but exponentially worse. I have no idea why this movie is so well rated. Are people being nice because they think Korean movies are so bad they need to grade this on a curve? Skip this movie and watch Castaway on the Moon or Train to Busan. See more

Luke P Jan 27, 2019 I enjoyed it, but still a bit confused...

Theodore S Jan 22, 2019 This is nothing less than the best horror film I have ever seen. To call "The Wailing" a horror film isn't even really fair. Although it clearly fits within the horror genre, it more closely resembles a Christopher Nolan film than it does any horror film you have ever seen. In fact, I suppose it would be fair to say that "The Dark Knight" is to comic book movies as "The Wailing" is to horror movies. In other words, it operates at a level far beyond all other movies in its genre (and virtually all other movies period). The movie also has an amazing way of putting the viewer in the shoes of the protagonist. This movie asks whether the protagonist and the viewer can recognize good and evil when they see them and does so in an incredibly intelligent, complex, and well-plotted way. There is some ambiguity to "The Wailing" but there is enough evidence to reach conclusions you can be confident of if you pay close attention and the most important conclusions are made explicit by the end. See more

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The Wailing

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