The Exorcism of Cha So-mi: Devils Stay (2024) Review

Director: Hyun Moon-Seop

Notable Cast: Park Shin-Yang, Lee Min-Ki, Lee Re

Within the last year or two, Korean cinema has seen a small boom of quality horror films, with the likes of Sleep, Metamorphosis, and even this year's standout in genre, Exhuma, all leaping to mind. Needless to say, quality fluctuates for the genre in South Korea, just as it does with any other country, but horror seems to be making a big comeback that we haven't seen from the region since the early 2000s, and I'm here for it. This year alone, I've seen quite a few Korean horror films, and I've enjoyed my time with each to varying degrees, but where does the latest religious-based themed horror Devils Stay land? Well, I'd say it is a good time, but it certainly has a bit of a bumpy presentation overall as a film, which I hope to express my thoughts on here.

Mile High Horror Film Festival 2020: The Cleansing Hour (2020)

Director: Damien LaVeck

Notable Cast: Ryan Guzman, Kyle Gallner, Alix Angelis, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Daniel Hoffman-Gill, Emma Holzer

 

Since the release of The Exorcist, the number of exorcism films released has been astounding. The waves of popularity in the genre comes and goes with the tides, but often it’s just a retread of the same concepts, plots, characters, and ideas. Occasionally there are some intriguing slants to the proceedings, such as the weird South Korean exorcism meets Blade hybrid Divine Fury or strong execution to carry it like The Last Exorcism, but often times its simply an exorcise in exorcism that goes through motions. Then, of course, there’s The Cleansing Hour. It’s oddly a film with a meta-layered commentary about the redundancy and familiarity of the tropes where it feeds into its own formula with such an energetic and poppy manner that it comes off as, dare I say, charming. It’s often very familiar, but its strength comes from the chemistry of its characters along with a somewhat scathing observation about the nature of modern streaming entertainment. It’s a highly entertaining ‘demon fucks with people dumb enough to fuck with demons’ flick and it knows to play up the gimmicks with a sly smile even while working through the main points.

 

The Song of Solomon (2018)

Director: Stephen Biro

Notable Cast: Jessica Cameron, Scott Gabbey, David E. McMahon, Gene Palubicki, Mareen Pelamati, Jeff Shedden, Josh Townsend, Jim Van Bebber, Scott Alan Warner, Andy Winton

Also known as: American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon.

There was one key thing that I missed before sitting down to watch The Song of Solomon the other evening for this review. Despite the fact that the box art does not say it anywhere on it, The Song of Solomon is also known as American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon. What does this have to do with anything, some might be asking. Well, if you know what the Guinea Pig series of Japanese exploitation films is, then you absolutely know what to expect from the film. You expect it to push the limits of its exploitative nature and do its damnedest to make its audience gag with its content and realistic special effects. However, I did not know this until after the film ended. What I expected was another hum-drum exorcism film. What I got was a rip-roaring gore fest, loosely tied together with a thinly guised plot, and enough in-your-face exploitation violence to make die hard horror fans feel light headed. To say that I was taken back might be an understatement. This film has all of the subtlety of a of an 18-wheeler barreling down the interstate with the gas petal stuck to the floor while the horn remains blaring. Truthfully, that’s a compliment. The Song of Solomon, for all of its issues, accomplishes what it intends to do with little regard on whether or not the audience has the will power (or gag reflex) to keep up.

Priests, The (2015)

Director: Jang Jae-hyeon
Notable Cast: Kim Yeon-seok, Gang Dong-won, Park So-dam

A film that starts off rather weak and slowly builds its way into something great along the way, The Priests is a film that despite its many flaws, I can say is a great piece of work.

The story is simple... a priest had been exorcising a young schoolgirl of her demons for months and enlists the help of a student as he realizes there are far too strong a forces within her. That's pretty much it, plot wise, and the film works as more of an entertaining popcorn movie than a thought-provoking horror flick.

Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Director: Mario Bava

Notable Cast: Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Sylva Koscina, Alessio Orano, Gabriele Tinti, Kathy Leone, Espartaco Santoni, Alida Valli

Throughout his career, Mario Bava tried his best to be diverse with his films even if he always brought his own unique flare to each one of them. It didn’t always work, but his attempts at branching out are appreciated from a fan’s perspective as it gives us some distinctive things to look at in his filmography. Of the more ‘classic’ horror films that he directed, Lisa and the Devil comes up as one of the hit or miss entries from fans depending on who you ask about it. Before seeing the film, I received a variety of opinions on the various versions (which will be touched on briefly below) and it would seem that it could be viewed anywhere between his best and his worst, given the various fan approaches to it. When the credits finally rolled on Lisa and the Devil though, I had to admit that I found it to be one of his best – an often too overlooked and misunderstood artistic and surrealistic horror film filled to the brim with approaches that leave it open to interpretation. It’s understandable why the film would generate such diverse reactions though, but for my money it’s a piece of Bava cinema that is just boiling with flashes of brilliance and an artistic approach that allows it to be seen in so many different ways.