Park Ji-young (Kim Jae-cheol), the son of a wealthy Korean businessman, lives in Los Angeles with his wife (Jung Yun-Ha). After many years of trying, they have just welcomed their first child. However, the baby never seems to stops crying. Ji-young worries that it is due to a curse that has been haunting his family’s first-borns for generations. So he seeks the help of a shaman, Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun), to see if there us any way to break this curse. Hwa-rim arrives in L.A. along with her protégé, Yoon Bong-gil (Lee Do-Hyun), and the two start looking into the situation. She believes in things like ghosts, devils, goblins and ghouls, and suspects that the Park family is dealing with a Grave’s Calling, which means that Ji-young and his son are being haunted by the shadow of his grandfather. Hwa-rim thinks that perhaps his grandfather’s body was improperly buried and they will need to exhume and rebury it in order to put the spirit to rest. However, she tells Ji-young that she will need to bring in some more experts, and enlists the help of feng shui expert/geomancer Kim Sang-duk (Choi Min-sik) and funeral director Ko Young-geun (Yoo Hae-jin).

There are several red flags about the situation, such as the fact that Mr. Park wants the body to be cremated, coffin-and-all without opening it first. It seems like Mr. Park is hiding something, Mr. Kim helps people find burial sites that are in perfect balance with the five elements—though these locations are rapidly becoming a rare commodity. He has never heard of the location where Ji-young’s grandfather’s body has been buried. And upon seeing the grave site, things get even more concerning. Mr. Kim suggests that the plot is vile, and that no one should be buried there. The fact that there are foxes roaming around the area is also an ominous sign. He doesn’t even want to take the job, but the others talk him into it, conducting an elaborate cleansing ritual during the exhumation. However, they soon discover that during the exhumation, some sort of evil spirit managed to escape, and is now looking for revenge, trying to eliminate the Park family one by one. And this is just the tip of the iceberg—something even more sinister has also escaped! Can this ragtag team find a way to stop this creature before it’s too late?!

Exhuma taking place over 6 chapters, the titles of which are notes on screen. The film starts off with a bit of a slow burn as we are first introduced to the various members of this team, watching some of them at work on other cases before being pulled in to handle the Park’s situation. The film then goes into great detail on the process they will follow to exhume the body and relocate the grave, with the characters explaining and demonstrating the various spiritual rituals that must be done to try to ensure the safety of those involved. The first half of the film almost feels like the opening of a TV pilot, which introduces this foursome and their roles, before they tackle their case of the week.

While there’s this creepy and ominous tone throughout the film, it isn’t until nearly 50 minutes into the movie that the audience finally starts to witness the supernatural happenings. This begins with mysterious things lurking in shadows, and reflections in the darkness, before evolving into full blown horror by the end of the film, with some really bloody and gory moments. The supernatural elements are rooted in a spiritual legend that the characters do a generally good job of explaining, though there may be a bit of expectation that the audience will just go along for the ride, even if they don’t quite understand everything that is happening.

Well Go’s has released Exhuma on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray disc. We were sent the Blu-ray version for review, and it looks phenomenal—I can’t imagine how the 4K release could look much better. The picture looks pristine with an excellent level of detail throughout, especially in faces. This can be a very dark film at times, but never too dark that you cannot tell what is going on. The audio is offered in both the original Korean Dolby Atmos track, as well as a DTS-HDMA English dub. I found the performances in the English dub to be quite good, and the stereo and surround tracks well-utilized to provide an immersive experience. This is especially noticeable once the supernatural elements really kick in and characters start hearing ghostly voices coming from various directions. I’d say that the Korean Atmos track has a slightly fuller sound than the dub track, but you can’t really go wrong with either one.

In addition to the usual trailer and previews, Well Go’s Blu-ray release also includes a short 3.5 minute promotional featurette with the cast/director. The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a locking HD keepcase. There is no digital copy, but our review copy did include a nice cardboard slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:14:14)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: Korean Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD, Korean Stereo, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English Stereo
• Subtitles: English, French

Extras:

• Making Of (3:38)
  Short promotional featurette in which the cast and director discuss the premise of the film, the characters, the actors portraying them, the occult mystery at the core, the lack of CGI, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with director Jang Jae-hyun, and stars Yoo Hae-jin (“Ko Young-geun”), Kim Go-eun (“Hwa-rim”), Lee Do-Hyun (“Bong-gil”) & Choi Min-sik (“Kim Sang-duk”). Presented in Korean with English subtitles.

Final Thoughts:

Exhuma is a bit of a slow burn at the start, but sets up a nice creepy tone and some interesting characters before the supernatural horror really kicks into high gear. Well Go’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds amazing, but the release is also being offered on 4K disc, which may be a first for Well Go. The film is definitely worth a look for fans of Korean supernatural horror films.

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