Police officer Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won, The Magician) is not very good at his job. He fumbles around his little sleepy village barely competent at the most mundane of professional tasks. He’s also not very good at his family, barely talking to his own wife and child while he eyes his neighbor (and, frankly, he does more than just eye her in the back seat of his car). Into this precarious mess drops a brutal double murder, and the only suspect is the mute man on the front porch (husband and father to the two victims).  He sits, trembling, covered in blood and skin lesions, and his eyes have become cloudy and white.

To show how much Jong-gu is out of his element, when he gets the call about the murders, writer/director Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea) has the officer just sit calmly back down with his daughter and wife,  eating breakfast while the other officers walk all over the bloody scene of the crime. Na throws in little touches like that: blackly humorous, sometimes even absurd bits, that give the narrative a slightly off-kilter viewpoint. It’s not distracting, but it did make me go, “Wha…?” more than once.

And I think this is exactly what Na is going for here.

As more vicious, bloody murders occur, many people in the village want to blame the incidents on a toxic mushroom that some may have ingested.  Others want to blame the Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura, Attack On Titan) that lives out in a remote, almost inaccessible area.  However, it’s soon pretty clear for all involved that there is something much more sinister and supernatural involved: there is an evil spirit that is looking for a body to possess, and it finally settles on the cop’s daughter, Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee, in an amazingly disturbing performance). Hyo-jin is, at first, just afflicted with abrasions and sores, but it soon evolves into much more disturbing behavior.

It gets bad enough that the officer hires a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) to try to get rid of the evil spirit, and it makes for one of the most chaotic and intense exorcism scenes I’ve ever watched.  It helps that I’ve lived in Korea, so I could understand some of the superstitions and beliefs of the characters. But who is the shaman exorcising? The Japanese stranger, who has photos of and souvenirs from the murders? Is it the odd intense silent woman who throws rocks and warns of coming trouble? Is it the shaman himself? Are they all working together? Are there too many questions?

For Na, the answer is yes, it could be any of those. Or all of those. Or none. And, no, never are there too many questions.  As I watched this two-and-a-half-hour (!) movie, I must have switched whose story I was believing and who I was rooting for a handful of times.  Na throws everything but the kitchen sink at this movie (you want zombies? you got zombies), hoping that as you sift through it all, most of it will stick in your head and unease will grow in your heart and soul.  Again, I have to mention talented young actress Kim Hwan-hee, who made me literally gasp at some of the things she, as her character, does. Kim is a brave, unselfconscious young lady with a great acting future ahead of her.

There are some very striking, shocking, and creepy images in this film, and yet it ends on an ambiguous note that lingers for a bit. It’s open for interpretation, but I think it’s a bit much to ask of a 150 minute running time. The Wailing could easily have been tightened up some with a bit of unsentimental editing without losing any of its effectiveness.  I still definitely recommend watching it, as The Wailing’s a very worthy meditation on faith, evil spirits, and family. Uncle Mike sez check it out!