From South Korea comes this macabre story about an inept policeman in a small village who must solve a series of strange murders to save his young daughter.

It starts out innocently enough as the main character Jong-goo is a small town cop who is comically bad at his job and severely unprepared for what is about to unfold.

After some unexplained murders, Jong-goo’s daughter Hyo-Jin falls ill with an unknown disease and begins acting more and more erratically. Thinking the girl is possessed, Jong-goo’s mother calls on a shaman to rid Hyo-Jin of whatever is possessing her.

For some reason, I thought it was going to be a zombie movie, but it’s not that at all. It’s more of a haunted, possession, good vs. evil tale and it’s really well done.

Normally, I complain when movies are overly long, and at 2 hours and 36 minutes, this movie seems like a prime candidate, but it actually makes good use of its time. It keeps building and building until the unsettling climax. There are more than a few scenery shots interspersed between the main narrative that could be off-putting to some, but I really enjoy the beauty thrown in amongst the ugliness of violence. And it also adds an eerie quality the keeps you on edge.

When it was over, I wanted more. Not because the story didn’t deliver sufficiently, but because it was like eating a good meal: you want more even though you know you should stop.

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