Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
When a wealthy Korean-American’s baby is on the brink of death, the family flies a renowned shamanic duo all the way from Seoul to help them. What follows is a series of terrifying events after the shamans dig up a suspiciously eerie grave in an attempt to end a family curse and save the baby.
Written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun, the Korean horror film Exhuma (Original title: Pamyo) stars Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun as shamans Lee Hwa-rim and Yoon Bong-gil, who team up with experienced geomancers Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) and Go Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin) to perform an exhumation ritual that goes horribly wrong.
Exhuma begins with a casual scene of Lee Hwa-rim and Yoon Bong-gil flying business class to the U.S. for their latest supernatural case. When the flight attendant speaks to Hwa-rim in Japanese while asking if she would like a refill, the shaman responds in the same language but asserts that she is Korean, not Japanese. This scene subtly establishes Hwa-rim’s pride in her national roots, which becomes a significant theme in the latter half of the movie.
The core suspense of the story, at least in the first half of Exhuma, revolves around the strange location of the grave and the exact identity of the corpse. To make matters worse, the family who hires the shamans is either unwilling to reveal more details about their past or weirdly unaware as to why their ancestor is buried in a strangely remote property with bad feng shui.
The shamanic rituals performed by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun, along with a host of other people hired for the exhumation ceremony, are among the most visually engaging sequences in the film. These scenes include live music, traditional drumming, ritualistic dancing, and some animal mutilation. For those averse to gore, it’s worth noting that these moments aren’t excessively violent or bloody.
What proves most irksome about Exhuma is that the story keeps building expectations that viewers will receive flashbacks explaining why the spirit is so malevolent it won’t even spare an infant descendant. However, apart from a brief glimpse of old images, the film never provides a solid backstory. While it’s possible to fill in the blanks, it just doesn’t feel very satisfactory. Instead, a new supernatural twist, albeit an intriguing one, pivots the focus of Exhuma towards the climax. Unfortunately, its execution feels a little off, and the special effects are foggily weak. The supernatural antagonist who hounds the protagonists looks like it was inspired from old 1990s horror flicks, so its presence might be unwittingly comical for older horror fans.
Overall, Exhuma delivers few spine-chilling scares, but it remains a well-acted thriller about old ghosts with a few new tricks.
Rating: 3 stars on 5. You can watch Exhuma on Prime Video.
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