2010 Movie
Dir. Jee-Woon Kim & Kim Jee-woon · Korea, South Korea · English, Korean
I Saw the Devil is a South Korean psychological thriller/horror film. IT IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!! It has a lot of blood and gore that could make even the strongest stomachs turn. A young woman is kidnapped from her car while waiting for a tow truck and the kidnapper murders her far from her car and scatters her body parts around. Her fiancé, a secret service agent of the National Intelligence Service, sets out to track down her murders and exact his revenge. If you’re looking for a thrill ride, look no further- but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.
"There is no denying that Kim Jee-woon is a phenomenal director, wrenching visceral thrills, dark humour and even occasionally an element of surprise, from all his stock set-pieces."
— Anton Bitel
"Although largely programmed on the festival circuit as a horror movie, I Saw the Devil deviates from pure scare tactics with its integration of cops-and-robbers style espionage and thrilling hand-to-hand combat."
— Eric Kohn
Sundance
1 nom
I like watching movies of the ‘horror’ genre to get spooked. I don’t really care about the blood and gore stuff like “SAW” and that type in general. So, I watched this knowing that I’m not into that stuff and had the bar set pretty low.
OMG was I happy I watched this movie. The run-time is long but holy crap was it worth it. The sub-genre ‘Psychological’ hits the nail on the head! I thought about that movie for days after I saw it. The main bad guy is just plain out there batshit crazy!
The only con to this movie was the run-time is due to some overplayed scenes. No spoiler here but for example, the funeral….it just went on for what seemed like an eternity. You’ll know when the director is trying to drive a point across and skip about 5 minutes ahead in the movie and you won’t miss a beat, or be sorry you did.
Even though this movie is subtitles…it really makes no difference. I wish they would make movies like that in the US.
Do yourself a favor and watch this!
I watched it twice! (would watch again with friends too)
I would have given it 5 stars but the director went to far with the sub-plots. Literally….