Geomeun sajedeul

Exorcism movies are far too common in the film industry. With rather rigid formulas to evoke horror and uninspired screenwriting and directing, even something recent like 'The Possession of Hannah Grace' that comes with a new premise, could not trespass the overused pattern. However, The Priests shows possibility that an exorcism movie may still have a bright future.

Between his controversies, an exorcist and his new assistant, a deacon with a trauma, must perform an exorcism to a girl who in her edge of physical endurance, along with deadly terror that brings upon them.

The short premise may sound too familiar to us. The ambiance of horror and dialogues between priests, also quite known already in this kind of movie. However, what's different is how the movie narrates with the deacon's perspective. With light nuance in the beginning, The Priests gives new perspective, comedy and drama, which never quite well delivered in my exorcism-movies experience. Rather than being flat and boring, this attempt makes the buildups to the climax (the exorcism scene, of course), becomes more suspenseful and interesting. I am surprised this movie can pulled this off, since this formula is quite overused in Korean films I watch so far, but somehow it's different.

What's also makes this movie more interesting, is how the movie humanize the priests not over the top. Sometimes, the priests in many movies deal with faith problem, and we have the realization moment. This movie, while quite following similar pattern, also depicts the imperfectness and goofiness in the men who serve for the church. The rapport not makes me overly emotionally invested, but it's good enough to makes me stay interested.

The next good thing, sometimes you will listen many exorcism scenes do anything with various languages spells and so on without any explanation, but this movie gives more background to the exorcism and what is the nature of the devil. It gives more sense of depth to the movie, and I like it a lot. The appearance of a traditional Korean shaman also spices up the movie, bringing sense of reality that in the dangerous time, it is not uncommon to try different methods to overcome evil. This particular thing, is not explored well in Western movies that often portray the exorcism in only certain way.

While all's been very positive to me, I am not a fan of many clichés that happen throughout the movie (really, I've seen three Korean movies today and they all have car accident scenes) and how the exorcism scene feels quite dry rather than a blast to pay the buildups. I highly recommend this movie for those who longing for a good exorcism film, with drama plot added. It's not full of twist, but shows us that in doubt of this kind of movie, with right formula and plot, even your standard exorcism movie plot can be a gem.

If you look at the IMDb page for "The Priests", you'll find that the summary really isn't what this film is about at all. Ignore it! Instead, the film is an interesting combination of Western films exorcism films combined with Eastern sensibilities. This combination is an interesting one and the movie by Jae-hyun Jang is well worth your time.

When the film begins, a young Catholic priest in South Korea is trying to exorcise a demon from a young girl. However, soon something expected occurs and the girl dives from her hospital window. Despite the horrible fall, she is still alive and is in a coma where she remains off and on for years---all the while the demon remains trapped within her. The priest makes it his life's work to rid her of the demon but he is so far unsuccessful. As for his assistants, they all end up leaving the case...unable to cope with the horrible fight against evil. Soon, assistant number 11 is assigned to help. Can he manage to sum up the internal strength and together they rid the world of this evil? And, once the demon leaves the girl, what exactly are they to do with it?! That is a problem they really forgot to plan for in "The Exorcist"!

As I just mentioned the film, at times, "The Priests" clearly feels like "The Exorcist". Fortunately, it is not some cheap Korean copy or reworking of the Hollywood picture and differs in many, many ways. Because it's an Asian film, it integrates quite a bit of Eastern religion and mysticism as well. You'll see shamans, salt used for purification and many other non- Western elements within the film. You also have some amazing special effects as well as an ending that is nothing like the more familiar Hollywood version. Additionally, the story works very well and it will keep you on the edge of your seat! Plus, the ending really is awfully intelligent and offers an excellent pay-off. Well worth seeing and I look forward to more films from Jae-hyun Jang.

By now you seen one exorcism you seen them all, right?

The Priests tells the tale of a little girl processed by a old demon that needs two holy men to drive it out. The process is so standard, it comes off as cheesy. They use all the clichés of exorcisms to try to creep you out but it all comes out very dull.

the most interesting parts are when the Koreans add some of their own culture into the Catholic religion in order to perform demon hunting, like the fact that one of the priest had to be born in the year of the tiger in order to battle this particular demon.

The Priests also had a strange buddy cop element to it with a seasoned Priest who seen everything twice and his hard attitude expresses it, is force to team up with a young rookie Priest who has not even finished his studies. Although, this element of the movie seems to be used only to pass time and is not that appealing

It was interesting to see Korea's take on the process of possession, but not interesting enough to support a whole film.

I was entertained by this Korean film with two priests unofficially assigned to remove the devil from a teenage girl. The acting is top notch and the script has a decent sense of humor. As a Catholic with some knowledge of my church's beliefs, I found the story to be well done. Nothing new in the popular theme but I was o.k. With the result.

Every movie that has exorcisms in it, has the "problem" that it will be compared with The Exorcist. There's no way around it, but if you can try to keep an open mind. I don't know if this is actually the very first South Korean exorcism film or not. What I do know though, is the quality is very high.

The acting, the set up and the scenes are very powerful. This can stand on its own, which is quite impressive. The horror that you get is quite impressive, especially if you consider that we have seen a lot of movies trying this. Cinematography and script are really good and I can recommend this, if you like horror movies