As the explosion of Asian horror has occurred over the last few years, South Korea has seen numerous entries achieve a revered status that has taken them to the forefront of the genre due to the impressive nature of their catalog. Featuring no shortage of highly-revered and accomplished work, the stage is set for the genre to bring new talent to the eye of those at home and abroad as a showcase for their talent to shine. Rightfully honored at the European Cinematography Awards and the New York Cinematography Awards as Han Juyeol took home top honors for his work at both ceremonies, director Tak Se-woong sees his feature-length debut “Devil in the Lake” finally reach American shores for fans of Asian horror to view this acclaimed new feature.
Moving out to the Korean countryside, Bo-Yeong (Ha Na Park) arrives at the mansion of the previously wealthy grandmother Wang (Jin Heo), as a caregiver with a dangerous intention. Mrs. Kim (Jung Young-joo), the only blood relative of Grandma Wang who hired Bo-Yeong, sets conditions such as ‘Do not bring anyone, especially children,' and ‘Do not go near the reservoir.' Ominous and bizarre signs continue in Grandmother Wang's huge mansion located next to a reservoir called ‘Gwimot' where people are dying, and Bo-Yeong finds out that foreigners who have visited the place have suffered a mysterious death.
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For the most part, “Devil in the Lake” has some rather enjoyable aspects. Among the most likable aspects here is writer/director Se-woong's highly intriguing setup that promises quite a lot to like. While offering up plenty of cliches with the central setup of Bo Yeong arriving at a remote village to care for the grandmother and stumbling upon a deadly secret haunting the area, enough is added to make for an engrossing mystery. There's just enough oddities about the way Wang acts, going from childishly playing with food or seemingly aloof about what's going on to sudden bursts of energy and rage, that speak of otherworldly forces at play. This behavior is greatly enhanced by the quips about how hard it is taking care of someone in that condition that paint a picture of a burgeoning mystery that needs to be explored. Even more setup comes about with the news of Bo Yeong's daughter Dajeong stowing away and living at the house against Wang's instructions so keeping her presence a secret complicates matters greatly and adds nicely to the strangeness felt at the house.
This serves “Devil in the Lake” quite well when it starts to introduce the more overt supernatural elements. Starting nicely with small-scale factors like the discovery of strange talisman protections throughout the house, cryptic warnings from neighbors to leave without elaborating, or Wang talking to Dajeong in an almost eerie playful manner, there's enough that's slightly off to feel uneasy living in the house even if there's no overtly obvious creep factor. When this escalates to vivid nightmarish dreams of demonic entities living in the building, ghostly visions of Wang or some other figure running around performing unnatural actions, or the continuous disappearing acts she does resulting in an intense search around the house for her, there's quite a lot to like about the atmosphere present. Taking a drastic turn at this point to reveal the truth about Bo Yeung and her dark past, this provides quite a lot of generally impressive flashbacks offering a slew of dark reveals about the past being brought to the surface. This offers up even more gothic atmosphere from Juyeol and is graced with a logical turn to the occult as well for some more enjoyable aspects, making for a generally enjoyable effort.
There are some issues here that pop up in “Devil in the Lake.” One of the biggest drawbacks is the rather obvious slow-burn tempo on display that drags out the running time quite heavily. With quite a lot of the movie devoted to Bo Yeong trying to come to terms with Wang's skittish behavior and turn-on-a-dime personality switches, the obvious intent is more on mystery-building rather than launching a series of scares the setup could've turned out to be. This continues for much of the second half as well, with the attempt at looking into the strange history of the lake near the house and surrounding woods. That leaves the film with a solidly creepy and chilling atmosphere for most of the running time until the finale when it starts to move with more urgency and adrenaline. The stoic nature of everything beforehand is quite slow and plodding in contrast which can be a turn-off. Likewise, the reliance on cliches present throughout here, from a stressed single mother trying to raise a rambunctious child while also full-time caring for an elderly woman in a large house who has a gruesome secret, is all too familiar and don't add much difference from dozens of other efforts. It's not truly detrimental but does end up bringing this down.
Containing a fine mystery and some solid supernatural action but is let down by some shaking pacing, “Devil in the Lake” has some enjoyable elements here, especially for fans of this type of high-end slow-burn genre fare that's become increasingly popular over the years. Those are generally going to be the main audience for this one as well as general fans of Asian genre fare.
