Did you know a brilliant horror film with a 99% RT rating and 7.4 rating on IMDB is currently streaming and ready to watch on Netflix?
The Wailing is a 2016 South Korean film that is available to stream on Netflix, and if you haven't watched it before, the best decision you can make right now is to go and watch it, and it even features on my top 15 underrated and overlooked horror movies to watch.
Set in a small village, the film begins when a mysterious stranger arrives, bringing with him a deadly illness.
As people start dying under strange circumstances, a confused and out-of-his-depth police officer named Jong-gu starts investigating and things then take a darker turn.
The Wailing isn’t your typical horror movie either, as this one is a fresh and unsettling film that mixes genres expertly.
The film begins with a lighter tone and has some decent humor thrown in but the dread is quickly ramped up.
If you don't believe me, then believe Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommer) who in an interview made these comments about the film.
When people ask if I consider myself a horror director, I’ll be quick to respond with a very clear no, absolutely not.
Because there are so few horror films that for me live up to what the genre can do. That epidemic has given the genre a bad name. It’s one of those genres that, if its virtues are being effectively exploited, can be just the most amazing experience in a theater.
When they work, I get very excited. The South Koreans are so good at horror in general, and they’re also so good at mixing genres, but in a coherent way. There’s this film called The Wailing. For me that was an experience.
It’s a police procedural that’s also a goofy black comedy about a police detective that turns into a serial killer film that then becomes a satanic possession movie that becomes almost Pinter-esque in its brand of existentialism.
The Wailing went all the way in providing a terrible kind of resolution. Your film similarly implies that resolution might be the most horrific thing of all. The ending reminded me of The Last Temptation of Christ, and how just the phrase “It is accomplished” can be terrifying.