History Film / TheWailing

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Hyo-jin starts acting like this after being possessed, complete with a NightmareFuelColoringBook.

-->-- '''[[Literature/TheBible Luke 24:37-39]]'''

''The Wailing'' (''Goksung'' in the original Korean) is a 2016 South Korean horror film written and directed by Creator/NaHongJin (director of ''Film/TheChaser'').

The rural village of Goksung, South Korea, is experiencing an epidemic of savage murders committed by people who seem to have contracted a mysterious disease. While the local police claims toxic mushrooms are the cause, rumors start accusing an old Japanese hermit (Creator/JunKunimura) of being the one responsible. When officer Jong-goo (Creator/KwakDoWon) realizes his daughter Hyo-jin (Creator/KimHwanHee) is showing the same symptoms as the other perpetrators, he teams up with shaman Il-gwang (Creator/HwangJungMin) to protect his family, all the while a mysterious woman (Creator/ChunWooHee) gives him cryptic clues about the true nature of the danger...

* ReligiousHorror: ''The Wailing'' starts as a thriller taking place in a small Korean village, but the crimes are quickly rumored to be caused by something supernatural, and a catholic priest as well as a shaman are called to defeat the source of the evil that has cursed the town. The director studied both Christianity and Korean shamanism thoroughly to be the most accurate possible, so that when [[spoiler:the Japanese man reveals his true nature to the priest, followers of both religions would see him as the ultimate evil.]]

* GodIsGood: For the given value of "God" anyway. [[spoiler: Moo-myung is a holy being determined to put a stop to the evil that torments the village and is visibly dismayed when Jong-goo does not heed her warnings during the film's climax. Whatever she is meant to be, guardian spirit, goddess, angel, or even God Herself, she's just trying to help.]]
* GodWasMyCopilot: [[spoiler: Moo-myung turns out to be a benevolent spirit and/or deity who was trying to put a stop to the evil transpiring in the village. From a Christian/Western perspective, you might even interpret her as an angel or even God Herself.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler: The Shaman. He seems like an ordinary enough human despite his line of work, but the ending of the film reveals that he was in league with the Japanese stranger (who is really a demon/the Devil). We aren't given any indication that he's not human, but when he comes into the presence of Moo-myung, his nose begins bleeding uncontrollably and he begins coughing up blood and vomit. Given that Moo-myung is a benevolent spirit or maybe even a goddess, it's possible that he too is a demon in disguise. There's also the possibility that as he is in the service of evil (the Demon/Devil) holiness/goodness afflicts him and perhaps precisely because he *isn't* supernatural Moo-myung's power has an even stronger effect on him than it does on the Demon/Devil.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler: The Shaman. He seems like an ordinary enough human despite his line of work, but the ending of the film reveals that he was in league with the Japanese stranger (who is really a demon/the Devil). We aren't given any indication that he's not human, but when he comes into the presence of Moo-myung, his nose begins bleeding uncontrollably and he begins coughing up blood and vomit. Given that Moo-myung is a benevolent spirit or maybe even a goddess, it's possible that he too is a demon in disguise. There's also the possibility that as he is in the service of evil (the Demon/Devil) holiness/goodness afflicts him.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler: The Shaman. He seems like an ordinary enough human despite his line of work, but the ending of the film reveals that he was in league with the Japanese stranger (who is really a demon/the Devil). We aren't given any indication that he's not human, but when he comes into the presence of Moo-myung, his nose begins bleeding uncontrollably and he begins coughing up blood and vomit. Given that Moo-myung is a benevolent spirit or maybe even a goddess, it's possible that he too is a demon in disguise.]]

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Il-gwang is the true master of the dark force tormenting the town]].

* TheTheTitle

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: The Japanese man, and very likely the WomanInWhite]].
* NoNameGiven: Two characters are never given real names. The WomanInWhite who appears to Jong-goo is only named Moo-Myeong, which means "Lady with no name" in Korean, while the hermit she accuses of being responsible for all the recent deaths in Goksung is only referred to as "the stranger" or "the Japanese man". Appropriately, [[spoiler:both turn out to be supernatural beings. [[MindScrew Probably]].]]

** At the start of the movie, a naked woman shows up at the police station in the middle of a stormy night, and Jong-goo is so terrified that he orders his deputy to look for her while he stays hidden behind his desk. At the end of the movie, he encounters [[WomanInWhite the Woman of No-name]], who he's been told is [[spoiler:a powerful evil spirit responsible for all the deaths in the village]], and while clearly scared he still stands his ground, look at her in the eye and demand answers from her.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Hyo-jin starts acting like this after being possessed, complete with a NightmareFuelColoringBook.
* WomanInWhite: While investigating a crime scene, Officer Jong-goo meets a strange woman wearing a white robe who throws rocks at him and tell him that the strange Japanese man living alone in the woods is the culprit, before disappearing. [[spoiler:She turns out to be some kind of local deity trying to protect the village against the stranger, who might be TheDevil himself, to no avail.]]