Byeonshin

A shapeshifting demon has attached itself to the family of a catholic priest struggling with a failed exorcism and a loss of faith.

This is an interesting take on the possession idea as the focus is very much on the demon rather than the victim. Without giving too much away we are never sure precisely who is the demon as it moves from person to person.

As with most modern Korean cinema this is is a great piece of visual story telling. We are constantly guessing who and how the demon is possessing. The way the evil unfolds around the family as it turns them against each other is dramatically portrayed.

But the story kind of lets itself down in the end. Throughout this film there are reminders of the physical artifice of the church but despite the evidence of demonic possession, the impotence is ultimately frustrating.

The confrontation with evil is left down to the single younger brother but it's not really clear why. For me a little bit too much is left unsaid and implied meaning doesn't balance out the constant sense of foreboding well enough. In the end we are left with a romantic sacrifice and some rather unconvincing ghostbusters style special effects.

This film has a lot going for it and while it leaves us with many unanswered questions the performances are convincing.

Byeonshin, internationally known as Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea. The movie starts with a scene where a priest tries an excorcism on a girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. The exorcism ends in a disaster and the reclusive priest thinks about moving abroad to take some distance from those horrible events. Around the same time, his brother's family moves to a new city. Even though the house looks amazing, the peace is quickly disturbed by a creepy neighbour who seems to be performing rituals with dead animals in the middle of the night. Even though the police starts investigating, they can't find any proofs for such rituals. Every single day, strange things start occuring in the neighbourhood and especially in the family. The mother has an emotional breakdown during breakfast. The father sneaks into his daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night but can't recall it the next day. As things slowly spiral out of control, the family asks the priest to intervene on his last day before moving abroad. The exorcist doesn't realize however that he has already been targeted by a menacing supernatural force as well.

This horror movie convinces with a steadily increasing gloomy atmosphere rather than with predictable jump scares. The acting performances add a lot to the atmosphere as one constantly tries to figure out who is acting normally and who might be possessed. The locations have been chosen with care and especially the opening exorcism, the neighbour's creepy house and the car accident scene will leave lasting impressions. The light and sound effects are employed with care rather than with exaggeration and complement the story appropriately.

In the end, Byeonshin or Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie for those who have gotten sick of Hollywood's predictable sequels of jump-scare horror flicks. This movie goes back to the roots of classic horror cinema of the seventies as it values atmosphere over shock effects. This film doesn't include much gore but rather focuses on psychological horror elements. What we have here is a slow burn that starts with a bang and then slows down to gradually unfold its bleak vibes until a dramatic finale. This film doesn't quite rival some other excellent South Korean horror movies of recent memory such as The Wailing, Rampant and Train to Busan but it proves once again that South Korean cinema is currently the best in the world in my opinion.

It felt like watching the same thing over and over. .The movie is long, kind of felt bored. It is just dragged to much. However, It has a unique concept to some extend as in horror movies, we typically get to see a ghost to enter someone's body and possessed it. But, in this movie shape shifter is kind of new. A demonic spirit or I donno what to referred it, can change shapes and faces too.

They've all been aping the 73 film for the most part, and falling short while they did. This had a very different take on it, and some smart ideas of its own. It didn't over rely on jump scares either, aiming for atmosphere and overall creep instead of giving you fluff and "Boo! I scared you." Films like this actually manage to stick in the brain for a while. Every time I thought to myself that a two hour run time might be a bit excessive, it kept proving that every moment of my time it was using was vital to the plot. The gore was well done but not excessive, I mean there was quite a bit, it's a Korean film, but if anything this was a tamer amount than some films from that country.

Just a fun enjoyable creepy experience, nicely done.

This is one of the best exorcism movie I have ever watched. No cheap jump scare no nonsense talk not even 1 minutes of unnecessary plot. Completed and compelling. Surpassed a lot of big budget horror crab. You shouldn't miss it.