The Wailing (2016)
………………………………………………………..
The Wailing Movie Review
The Wailing is a 2016 South Korean horror film directed by Na Hong-jin. It is a very interesting, yet disappointing movie.
………………………………………………………..
“Not everything that moves, breathes and talks is alive.“
………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………..
It is about a policeman who teams up with a shaman and a mysterious woman to investigate mysterious killings and illnesses. The plot itself is serviceable and the film features a well told, well crafted narrative with good direction. I liked some of the plot points quite a bit, but some were boring and disappointing.
The characters are pretty solid for a horror movie plus the actors portraying them all did a really good job. As I said, Na Hong-jin is excellent and he directed the movie really well. The flick benefits from many intriguing concepts in it and it mashes all of them solidly into a diverse whole.
But the reason why The Wailing is still disappointing and just an okay movie, but could easily been great lies mostly in its troublesome execution. The pacing is awful, way too slow and the film is thus quite dull to watch at times. I just never understood the need for two and a half hour long running time for this type of movie. Horror movies rarely need such a long running time and this one certainly didn’t need that as well. If it were an hour shorter, it would have been much more effective.
………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………..
I found its horror elements also lacking. Some of them are fine, but the film isn’t scary and isn’t as atmospheric as it should have been. The overabundance of gore definitely annoyed and frustrated me. There are a couple of scenes that are overly excessive in gore and violence and yet they do not feature real tension at all which was unfortunate. The film is well made, directed and shot. Some of the imagery is quite memorable, but the pacing is awful and it is really unfortunate that they wasted this great opportunity for a great horror feature when all cards were evidently on the table. Immensely disappointing indeed.
The Wailing is a disappointing horror film. It is well shot, directed and acted, but even though it is intriguing and interesting in some of the scenes, as a whole it doesn’t quite work as the use of gore is excessive and the running time of two and a half hours is just too much for this type of film leading to a slower than needed movie. It could have been much more effective had it been shorter in length.
My Rating – 3
………………………………………………………..
