Korean Reviews Reviews

Film Review: The Priests (2015) by Jang Jae-hyun

Stands apart due to its themes, which include the Catholic Church, exorcism, and religion in general

Quite a different horror-thriller, “” stands apart due to its themes, which include the Catholic Church, exorcism, and religion in general, along with some metaphysical elements.

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As a car with an Italian priest who holds a creature covered in a black cloth in his lap is speeding, it hits Young-sin, a high school student. Priest Kim, who is something of a persona-non-grata among the Church circles, knows the girl and visits her in her hospital, and is soon convinced that she is possessed by demonic spirits. She proceeds on securing a license to exorcise the girl, but has trouble finding a deacon to help him, since every one of them seems to detest the procedure. Eventually, he ends up with Seminary student Choi, the 11th in the row.

, in his debut, directs a film that is clearly separated in two parts. The first one entails the events that lead to the exorcism and the second the ritual itself. The issue with the film, though, is that this separation also applies to quality. The first part is disjointed in terms of script and mediocre in terms of acting (apart from some comedic scenes) and direction, while the second part excels in all of the above and additionally, in terms of its technical aspects.

In that fashion, the first part tries to make some comments regarding church politics and corruption inside its circles, but fails, while the various events that occur seem disjointed and quite misplaced. The only excuse I could probably think is that the script assumes that the spectator knows much about the Catholic Church and so, it does not need to explain further. However, for the “ignorant” audience, the first part's only purpose is to serve just as a background for the second part.

The exorcism sequence, on the other hand, is truly magnificent in all its aspects, including amazing acting by both as Priest Kim and as Deacon Choi, impressive grotesque cinematography by and spectacular editing. Along with the special effects and the matching music that actually heightens the horrific atmosphere, result in a true masterful scene, which actually manages to save the film, as it becomes a truly agonizing thriller.

The general acting of the two protagonists, along with this last part make for a film actually worth watching, since the ending can make someone forget the first part.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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