Okay let me preface by saying… I didn’t even realise this was a spin-off of the 2015 film The Priests starring Kim Yoon Seok and Gang Dong Won. So basically instead of priests doing the exorcism, it was nuns. Which anyway, the trailer gave off a lot of girl power energy so I was quite excited to watch it. I only realised at the end that both movies were connected.
The movie follows Sister Giunia (played by Song Hye-kyo) who is convinced that the evil spirit possessing a young boy Hee-joon (played by Moon Woo-jin) is one of the 12 Manifestations. When his life is in danger and the exorcist priest is unable to come in time, Sister Giunia decides to break a sacred rule that “an unordained nun cannot perform an exorcism.” However, her efforts are hindered by Father Paolo (played by Lee Jin-uk), Hee-joon’s attending physician, who firmly believes that only medicine can save the boy. When Sister Giunia discovers a secret about Father Paolo’s disciple, Sister Michela (played by Jeon Yeo-been), she seeks her help to smuggle Hee-joon out of the hospital and perform the exorcism together.
[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD]
Firstly, if you’re a horror buff like me, you might be slightly disappointed because it wasn’t really scary at all. For an occult movie, I felt like the story could have been developed a lot more but the main emphasis seemed to be on Song Hye-kyo’s character, which I felt was a pity because there were so many unanswered questions at the end of the movie. And they didn’t really explain much about her character anyway…
That said, the actors did an amazing job with their roles, particularly Moon Woo-jin who quite frankly was the only “scare” factor in this movie because his portrayal of being possessed by whatever demon was so realistic it must have been absolutely exhausting filming all his scenes. Which brings me to some of the burning questions the film never answered – what are the 12 Manifestations? Which one possessed Hee-joon and how and why him? The only time we were given some kind of introduction to his character is when he’s at the hospital with his mother who seems to be struggling with life and subsequently ended up being killed by the demon possessing Hee-joon.
I think I was quite frustrated with the lack of story development throughout the movie. It felt really rather rushed to me. I wonder if it would have been better as a series, with each episode focusing on one of the 12 Manifestations… But I’m not sure the writer has enough material for that anyway.
Frustrations aside, I do like a rebel kind of character, which Sister Giunia was, going against whatever rules the religion had about unordained nuns not being allowed to perform exorcisms… all to save a boy’s life. It’s a noble cause, right? Doing whatever it takes to save an innocent life? One of my favourite scenes was when both Sister Giunia and Sister Michela worked with a shaman to perform a ritual because isn’t it just so beautiful when different religions can come together in peace and work together to save a life? It might be rather blasphemous but I personally liked that harmony of the nuns and the shaman working together.
Another thing I only realised after watching is how Lee Jin-uk doesn’t have much of a role in the film. His character is almost forgettable, unfortunately. I was looking forward to seeing him in action somewhere, maybe putting out a fire, or helping out with the exorcism, anything. But all he did was initially forbid the nuns from performing the exorcism, and later on relenting and giving them the tools required. Then it’s just – okay, you’re on your own now, bye!
So basically, I felt like this movie had a lot of potential, especially with the girl power vibes from the main female leads, but ended up not delivering, which was a pity. I was pleasantly surprised at the random cameo by Gang Dong-won at the end though, which hinted at a potential sequel with Jeon Yeo-been’s character being the main lead. If they do create the sequel, I really hope they spend more time on the story development instead of random cinematic shots. I mean, I appreciated the close-ups of Father Paolo but I left the theatre feeling quite unsatisfied.
The movie is still a decent watch if you like occult films and if you’re easily spooked but feel like you want to watch a supernatural film.
