For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was buried in, but it was also how empires grew in power, often at the expense of the people that came before. Exhuma is centered in a haunted burial site of a Korean family that migrated due to the war, but as the shamans try to unearth the casket, they also uncover the psychospiritual ways in which Japan colonized Korea– haunting the land with their own ghosts, dividing its people through belief, and leaving deep scars that hasn’t yet been fully recovered from. While the double exorcism situation can be a tad confusing, Exhuma nonetheless elevates this folk horror drama with their respect and attention to detail for Korean shamanism.
"It makes up for its paucity of scares through the multiple layers of weirdness that it excavates, as one (burial) plot leads to another and as legacy, whether genetic or national, has unseen depths."
— Anton Bitel
After tracing the origin of a disturbing supernatural affliction to a wealthy family's ancestral gravesite, a team of paranormal experts relocates the remains—and soon discovers what happens to those who dare to mess with the wrong grave.
After discovering a curse on a rich Korean American family, Korean shaman Hwa-rim and her protégé Bong-gil forms a team with feng shui master Kim Sang-deok and mortician Yeong-geun to excavate and relocate the family’s ominous ancestral grave.
It’s interesting to see how both Japanese and Korean folklore are infused in this exorcism, with the differing ways in which they perceive ghosts fit creating new stakes.
Asian spirits are terrifying as hell.
Berlin
1 nomination
