Exhuma (2024)

Greetings dear listener, We are posting this episode on October 30th —the eve of All Hallows Eve. In some circles, this is also known as “Mischief Night” —apropos because the film we’re covering isn’t your typical ghost story, it is an alchemy of the horror genre blending folklore, spiritualism, and the principles of “Pungsu-jiri-seol” (the Korean equivalent of feng shui). Jang Jae-hyun’s “Exhuma” is a horror film, that exists adjacent to what most audiences would expect of the genre. Jang’s vision is sufficiently gray and gloomy to set the mood, but his script and storytelling set this film apart. Choi-Min sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hae-jin, and Lee Do-hyun give sound and muted performances. The characters have depth and just enough charisma to convince even the most immovable skeptic that the supernatural world is real. There are plenty of scares wrapped in this modern spooky tale to please diehard connoisseurs of the macabre, but it is also a deeply profound allegory of generational trauma. There are plenty of demons, and knife wielding monsters to keep you on the edge of your seat. Sam likes to say that it’s hard to scare her, and I have to concede once you’ve seen one horror film, it’s hard to recreate the first time you saw Regan crab-walk down the stairs in “The Exorcist” or when you crouched lower and lower in your seat as Leatherface was chasing you through the fields with his chainsaw. What makes this film special is that it reminds us that there are always small shadows of what we don’t know, and there is always a small sliver of what we can’t be sure of. And that is just enough, to make us light a favorite candle, or burn a little sage, when we hear an unfamiliar bump in the night. It is the same unknown that drew our ancestors closer together, or made strangers form close bonds and alliances to fend off whatever great dark beast was lurking beyond the light of the evening fire. Watch the film. Use the subtitles. Happy Halloween 🎃 B. & S. As promised, a link to our favorite American ghost story, in audio. https://youtu.be/TyHj93oUI8A?is=wvxSlEc0kUAv1HP8