Metamorphosis is the latest genre film to head to horror streaming service Shudder. Directed by Hong-seon Kim, the South Korean chiller offers a fresh delve into the world of exorcisms. During the opening moments we meet Priest Joong-soo in the midst of a nasty exorcism. Sadly, the ritual ends with the death of his charge that he was working to save. In addition, the entity he was battling swears to exact horrible revenge upon Joong-soo’s family. Enter Joong-soo’s brother, and his wife and three children, whom on advice from Joong-soo, have relocated. Their move has clearly caused tensions within the family dynamic, and these cracks are chipped away at as they begin to encounter all manner of strange things. It’s soon clear that something otherworldly is messing with them, and Joong-soo is called into help, but can he vanquish this demon once and for all?
Since Bong Joon-ho’s phenomenal Parasite captivated audiences around the world, eyes have turned to other cinema from South Korea. This means that the likes of Metamorphosis suddenly find themselves with a potentially much broader audience than they might have had pre-Parasite. And in the case of Metamorphosis, it’s certainly worth it. Much like the other recent Shudder acquisition The Cleansing Hour , Metamorphosis offers a new angle on the demonic possession story. Rather than just tell the tried and tested ‘Priest meets someone possessed and does battle with the entity’, this story instead looks into the aftermath of such a fight with the consequences falling upon our Priest’s unsuspecting family. He then takes a backseat so that said family can take the spotlight.
The film shifts tone and begins to play like the likes of The Conjuring or The Amityville Horror as we watch our core family start to unravel. Rather than just having them subjected to scary events, the film builds up tension and fits of paranoia. Rather than just settling on a host and using it to torment everyone else, this demon seems to prefer a spot of host jumping. This causes some great scenes wherein mother turns on son, father on daughter, sister on sister etc., and renders all of them unable to fully trust each other. It’s a truly terrifying thing to not be able to trust your close family members, and that uneasy feeling is captured wonderfully.
Given the amount of people that the demon jumps through, the FX team clearly had a lot of work on their plate. The victims really suffer, which means some really gross stuff occurs. There is some impressive FX work on display; the possessed victims literally ooze and pulsate… Metamorphosis really is not a film to watch on an empty stomach. Squeamishness aside, you need to see the host come apart. A possessed person, a la Regan in The Exorcist, makes proceedings far more entertaining than what has become the standard black eyes and pasty faces.
At just shy of two hours, at times, Metamorphosis suffers from a little lagging. It doesn’t quite zip along as much as it should. Whilst an argument could be made that the films needs so much time to build up tension and family dynamics, this is not the case. There are plenty of moments that could be tweaked slightly and still generate the same energy. Overall it doesn’t detract from the story, it’s just an example of film that does feel its length at times.
A chilling and intriguing interpretation of a well-worn genre, Metamorphosis is yet another example of the fine cinema coming out of South Korea right now.
Metamorphosis is available on Shudder now.
Metamorphosis
Summary
Further proof that South Korea is creating some of the most interesting genre films out there right now.
