This is Carol Borden’s last film of this year’s Overlook Film Festival–Exhuma (South Korea, 2024):

The past is very present in writer/director Jang Jae-hyun’s Exhuma (South Korea, 2024). There is both familial and colonial history reaching back to World War II and then even further. Shaman Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and her partner Bong Gil (Lee Do-hyun) are called to help the exceedingly wealthy Park family in Los Angeles. She seeks help relocating the grave or cremating the body—from Geomancer/ Feng Shui expert Kim Sang-duk (Choi Min-sik of Oldboy (2003); I Saw The Devil (2010), and more recently, Heaven (2022) fame) and Funeral Director Ko Young-gyuen (Yoo Hai-jin). The Park family keeps much from the experts they have called in, including who their grandfather is, why they want him cremated casket and all rather than relocated, and why he is buried on the border with North Korea in nondescript grave shadowed by a skulk of foxes in a spot that Geomancer Kim declares “vile.” They successfully remove the coffin, but, of course, there is little chance that Grandfather Park will stay put. And when he does escape to punish his descendants, he is terrifying and murderous. And there is a scene where all the family secrets intersect with national history when he possesses Ji-yong in a remarkable performance from Kim Jae-chul. His transformation from terrified to terrifying is remarkable. And he becomes terrifying in a way I did not expect.

I enjoyed Exhuma immensely and I would love if it were a series where in each episode Kim, Lee, and Ko get together—with Bong Gil, of course—to solve a new occult/paranormal mystery. It is a pleasure to see Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun and Yoo Hai-jin work together. I am also enjoying Choi’s current period of playing tired, kind of grumpy men in this and Heaven. I loved the group of specialists and their cunning plans based in their specializations. And I love an occult mystery—especially one that is, unlike say the novels of Dennis Wheatley, anti-colonial. Exhuma is a glossy and polished movie with just enough humor and humane moments to take the edge off the cruel history the film presents.

Read more thoughts about Exhuma from Carol here.