Directed by: Yoo Yeong-seon (유영선)
Starring: Seo Young-hee (서영희), Son Na-eun (손나은), Lee Tae-ri (이태리), Park Min-ji (박민지), Choi Hong-il (최홍일), Son Sungyoon (손성윤)
Review: The Wrath is based on the 1986 horror film of the same name and is about a vengeful ghost that wreaks havoc on the family of a high ranking Joseon official. This official lost his first two sons to an unknown evil force and the film begins with the official’s third son returning to his home with the hopes of vanquishing the evil force once and for all. When his new bride becomes pregnant, the eerie sounds of a woman wailing from deep within the forest signal the return of the evil spirit.
Son Na-eun from the K-pop group Apink lands her biggest film role yet and plays the newly pregnant bride, Ok-bun, who is forced to live with her husband’s stepmother (Seo Young-hee) and her two daughters-in-law during her pregnancy. We quickly learn that these daughters-in-law are the widows of the two deceased older sons who died before they were able to produce a son, and that an aura of unspoken panic can be felt looming over the family as they enter desperation mode with their ability to maintain a prestigious place in the Kingdom resting on the ability to produce a son born of the noble lineage, i.e. all hope lies in Ok-bun to deliver this son to the family.
The Wrath seems to be going for a kind of dark and twisted Cinderella vibe at least in the beginning as the stepmother and daughters in-law treat Ok-bun very poorly and consider her as just a tool for producing this baby. However, there is no prince charming or fairy godmother coming to Ok-bun’s rescue in this story as she’s pretty much left to fend for herself throughout her tormented stay. Meanwhile, the evil spirit begins to make its way into the story by way of possession of various characters and threatens ruin on the entire family. This prompts the stepmother presiding over the family and its household to call upon an exorcist, played by Lee Tae-ri, to come and assist with the matter.
Son Na-eun’s performance in The Wrath has largely been criticized at least locally here in Korea for her unconvincing and just overall poor delivery of dialogue in the film. But to be fair, much of Ok-bun’s dialogue is written in simple one or two-worded responses typically in answer to what she’s being told to do by her new mother and sisters-in-law. And even though she does get some scenes with extended dialogue, it is only the most basic of back-and-forth exchanges. So it’s actually quite difficult to tell whether the filmmakers were working around her sub-par acting ability or whether the part was actually just written so paper thin and bland that they could have just as easily cast a mannequin in the role and not changed the end product all that much.
It might be worth mentioning that I did notice several shots in the film during scenes of Son delivering dialogue where the camera was filming from behind her head (typical composition when showing the other character delivering dialogue) were used instead of cutting to her face. This makes matters somewhat suspect as to the motive but I would think that with such few lines being delivered by Son that every second of face time would be important, and so I’m left to guess that it was probably done due to a lack of confidence in Son’s ability to deliver her lines convincingly. Overall though I can confidently say that this role was 100% safe for Son Na-eun to take if she didn’t want an acting challenge and an absolutely horrible choice of role if she was looking for a chance to put her acting talents on display.
The head mother figure of the household is played by So Yeong-hee who in my opinion gave one of the best performances in maybe the last decade of Korean film in the 2010 film Bedevilled and probably gets the most screen time in the The Wrath out of all the characters. But she is very confined to sitting positions and always seems like she’s trying to come across too scary with her expositionally heavy instructions that she’s always giving her daughters-in-law that end up just being filler to put in-between the various jump scares and attempts at horror. This makes her role in The Wrath feel like a missed opportunity at potentially pulling off yet another very creepy and memorable character performance.
Even with The Wrath being based on an 80’s horror film and giving the film the benefit of the doubt that it may have been going for a retro look and vibe with its effects, not only do the special effects in the film look cheesy but the practical effects do too. The effects come off as either looking cheap and dated or just flat out cringe at times. It is far too clear that the smoke filling the rooms was coming from fog machines and the various lighting changes, like a big red spotlight dancing around a room or shining brightly from deep within the forest, look like someone swinging a flashlight around. Everything down to the elaborate costuming and meticulously put together hair and make-up of each actor in every scene (especially that of the exorcist character played by Lee Tae-ri) comes across as very artificial looking and seemingly more appropriate in an afternoon soap opera or historical made-for-tv drama.
There is a fairly cool concept at the core of the story in The Wrath, about how a ghost or spirit can aim all its efforts at a particular family bloodline in its approach to haunting, but the lackluster production and thinly written characters make The Wrath a real dud and a sure skip. So we’ll have to keep waiting for a new Korean horror film that can actually live up to putting “곡성” (Gokseong) in its title (The Wrath having the Korean title “여곡성 (Yeo-Gokseong)” or “Woman’s Wailing“) and be worthy of reminding us of one of Korea’s best horror/thrillers in 곡성 (Gokseong) or “The Wailing” (2016).
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