Exhuma is an interesting take on a ghost story from South Korea. It involves shamanistic practices that I’m highly unfamiliar with… enough so that I’m not even sure if they are based on actual Korean beliefs or just made up for this movie. Not that it matters… it’s just refreshing to get something other than Catholic priests involved in busting ghosts.

The flick is about professional psychics and geomancers (folks really into fung-shui… and burial practices) who help folks out in Korea. In this case, they need to exhume a hundred year old grave located on the top of the mountain. The spirits are not amused.

This is a very well made and good looking spook show that maybe perhaps goes on a little long. But I was always impressed by the production values and a certain level of chaos it introduces, especially during the rituals of exhumation. The ghost story bits are kind of hovering around the usual kind of spook show business… but the ways the living handle them are interesting.

The film uses these rituals in such a matter-of-fact way without the need to over-explain to Westerns (or anyone else). It’s kind of nice to get something not catering to me. Plus there’s an angle to the plot involving specifically Japanese ghosts that relates back to the war that was surely based on cultural wounds specific to Korea.

I did feel 2hr 20min might be a little too long for a scary movie though. Sure, they had to resolve the issue and they filled the time with things to do… but breaking the two hour mark and maintaining the scares is a challenge and a big ask.

But otherwise, it’s a pretty good scary movie based on a cultural spirituality and shamanism that I was unfamiliar with. As a horror show, it gets into some pretty creepy imagery and sequences. It’s a good flick.

Score: 82