Just watched The Wailing (2016) for the first time—and I’m still reeling. This might just one of the greatest horror films of all time.
Na Hong-jin’s masterpiece isn’t just scary. It’s a spiritual labyrinth where faith, folklore, and paranoia collide so completely that by the end, you’re not sure what you saw—or if you can trust your own eyes.
It begins with a quiet village, a mysterious stranger, and a sickness that turns neighbors into monsters. But what unfolds is something far more devastating: a film that weaponizes doubt itself. Is it possession? Is it madness? Is it divine punishment—or something older, hungrier, and utterly indifferent to human morality?
The performances are staggering. The atmosphere is suffocating. And that 30-minute shamanic exorcism sequence? One of the most intense things I’ve ever seen on screen.
This isn’t horror as spectacle. It’s horror as theological crisis.
If you’ve been waiting for a truly great horror film—one that lingers like a half-remembered nightmare—this is it.
Thoughts? Have you seen it? Did you really see it—or did it see you? My full 5/5 star analysis , with the trailer, is in the sources below. Please check it out .
