Metamorphosis

It is okay to watch and enjoyable but nothing standout really. The story just go with the flow and the ending feels empty, I think the movie wouldn't be lame if there's more plot and twist like more effort on explaining what is actually happening.

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.

The dramatization is great, and each character is portrayed with strong and believable traits. Maybe because this movie came out in 2019, the level of impossibility still fits the standard of that time, so I can understand some of the decisions made in the story.

However, watching this now in 2025, the progression of the plot feels a bit lacking by today's standards. It's hard not to question the logic behind certain actions. I was genuinely surprised by how unrealistic some parts felt. I mean, who wouldn't run away immediately when their entire family suddenly has a doppelgänger-something that's not a miracle, but closer to a psychopath in form?

If I were in that situation, I'd never step foot in that house again, especially when all of it starts happening right after moving into a new neighborhood. The premise is creepy and intense, but the characters' reactions sometimes don't match how real people would behave in such terrifying scenarios.

Overall, it's a decent horror film with strong atmosphere and acting, but it doesn't hold up as well when judged by more modern story-telling standards.

If you are looking for an exorcism horror movie without big expectation this one is a nice choice.

It is morderately good, but it should have worked more with the family dynamics and the problems to make the whole thing way more suspense. As a viewer you know way to soon what was going on except a little bit in the end. It is not bad by any means, there are some good moments in there, but they could have done more with the concept. Plotholes aside, there were good ideas about the demon that could have played way more with the viewers mind.

Some scenes were quite good but it is no mindblowing new exorcism movie.

This is a solid exorcism horror film. Yes, it's in Korean (still unclear on why so many people refuse to watch movies with subtitles), but it is very good. Even twists the plot on your standard exorcism tropes in a way I don't believe I've seen done before. Really don't want to give away spoilers on that so that's all I'm saying. Good acting, creepy as hell with a few cringey gore scenes. I, myself, adore horror films. Total junkie so I've seen an obscene amount and this is definitely worth a watch. Especially if you like your exorcism/possession films.