A recent trend in South Korean genre fare is to explore the Western trope of possession and exorcism. Starting with Jang Jae-hyun and his work in the genre, it led the way to other fare such as “The Divine Fury,” and “Metamorphosis” to come about before turning to this new effort that continues to explore the topic. Originally shot in 2020 and scheduled to be released in mid-2021 before plenty of delays have held the film up until now, WellGo USA presents the release of Hyun Moon-seop‘s new possession film “Devil’s Stay” in theaters on December 6.
Following his daughter’s death, heart specialist Cha-seong (Park Shin-yang) doubts the claim that his daughter So-mi (Lee Re) is dead after an exorcism, believing her heart still beats. Amid her three-day funeral, he and priest Hae-sin (Lee Min-ki) clash over the truth, each trying to prove their stance and potentially save her life. As events escalate bringing each one closer to believing they’re right even if the truth is somewhere in the middle, they become forced to come together and battle the real threat inside the girls’ soul trying to destroy everyone it comes across when it can be reborn.
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Overall, “Devil’s Stay” has quite a lot to like about it. Among the main positive attributes is a strong and engaging story from writers Kim Da-rin, Kang Da-hee, Jo Young-soo, and director Moon-seop that sets up a far more heartbreaking feature than expected. Initially exposed to everything through the aftermath of the exorcist and the consequences around what happened to So-mi as the experience left her dead, backtracking a bit to understand how we got there is quite intriguing. Offering a strong build-up of the family dynamic between her and her father Dr. Cha helps to understand not just his grief at everything but the motivation to let the event play out, as it does with their past involving how she got possessed and what went through the exorcism itself.
This is aided along nicely not just with the impressive work to showcase the grieving family coming to terms with everything but also the follow-up inquisition on the priest Hae-sin who performed the fateful exorcism that killed her to see what went wrong. This all allows for a great setup involving the different family dynamics at play but also getting a chance to build up a solid supernatural presence.
As this gets explored, the more overt supernatural references in “Devil’s Stay” manage to build an immensely intriguing feature. The steadfast belief that So-mi is still alive causes no shortage of hauntings based on her father’s inability to grasp what’s going on, leading to demented freak-outs trying to convince others she’s not truly dead. Being based on standard hallucinations and visions of the body performing unnatural features for something it shouldn’t be doing while dead, the idea is extrapolated quite nicely with the build-up focusing on Cha-seong overcoming the guilt of himself possibly having killed her with the heart transplant he performed on her. Meanwhile, later scenes featuring more traditional tropes of the genre work quite nicely. With the encounters featuring the possessed individuals going through the usual manner of setpieces including speaking in tongues, levitating, growing veins across the body, or displaying unnatural scratches that are usually associated with the genre, a number of fun aspects hold it up quite nicely.
There aren’t too many drawbacks in “Devil’s Stay” but they do have an impact. The main issue is the extremely chaotic storyline that might do well at integrating several fine features but also manages to be quite complex for its own good. The main concept of Cha-seong’s grief over what happened to So-min causing him to act out the way he does is fine enough, but the way Hae-sin’s backstory dealing with demons or other possessed individuals tormenting him doesn’t serve much purpose as it’s mostly abandoned for long stretches. Even his possession is brought up and used as a motivating factor but then gets dropped which makes the inclusion pointless, quite like a subsect of Russian immigrants who practice Satanic worship that’s used as a possible cause for everything.
The main ideas here work incredibly well but there’s way too much going on for what’s happening in the film. As well, the expected and traditional tropes of the genre are out in full force, from the priest with the troubled past, the hysterical family member going to extremes to prove something to doubters, and swarms of animals appearing that signify supernatural possession that is mostly retreads of numerous other entries. These make the film come off like a routine example of the genre’s formula and bring it down somewhat.
“Devil’s Stay” has plenty to enjoy even though its detrimental factors are enough to keep it from reaching the higher end of the genre. Those interested in the style, aren’t bothered by the flaws or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like.
