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I want a thread for shaman films. $WAIL is the obvious reference, but I mean the whole tradition: the gut ritual on screen, the drums, the colors, the feeling that the ceremony itself is a battle.
What I appreciate is that the best ones treat the mudang with respect. The shaman is a professional doing hard work, not a cartoon witch. The horror comes from what she is fighting, not from her.
This is exactly my corner. The ritual sequence in The Wailing is one of the most intense stretches of film I know, and it works because you believe everyone in it takes the ceremony seriously.
It is a long film and I never checked the clock once. A long build is fine when every scene makes the fog thicker.
Interesting pattern: $WAIL has a sentiment profile I love. Mentions are not huge, but the tone score is very high and very stable. People who talk about it are rarely lukewarm.
People who talk about it are rarely lukewarm
Because everyone is still arguing about who to trust! Ten years later my friends still fight about it at dinner.
I came to K-horror through $TRBS, which is more zombie action, and The Wailing was a very different experience. Where should I go next, somewhere in between those two?
Try the ghost school films from the late 1990s for atmosphere, then some of the recent occult films. You will see the shaman tradition come back again and again in new shapes.
Sound designer note: the drums in those ritual scenes are mixed so loud they almost push the dialogue out. It feels like the ceremony is taking over the movie itself. I study it like homework.
From Japan we are a little jealous. Our ghosts are quiet. Your rituals are loud and full of color. Both are scary, just in a different key.