DEVILS STAY (2024)

New in select theaters from Well Go USA!
Directed/Written by Moon-Sub Hyun.
Check out the trailer here!!

Park Shin-yang plays Cha Seung-do, a brilliant doctor attempts to heal his ailing daughter Cha So-mi (Lee Re) by purchasing a heart on the black market. Though the surgery is a success, So-mi becomes possessed by an ancient demon that resided in the translplanted heart. A priest named Father Ban (Lee Min-ki) is called to perform an exorcism that ends in the death of So-mi. Though the family is mourning and beginning the three day ceremony of burying So-mi, Seung-do refuses to concede that his daughter is really dead. Meanwhile, Father Ban believes that while So-mi has been exorcised, the possessed heart isn’t, and So-mi will rise in three days as the demon. Much drama and conflict ensues.

DEVILS STAY is a new exorcism flick from South Korea that tries to flip the script by having the big exorcism at the beginning of the film. While it isn’t successful, it does start the film out with a bang and some of the most powerful scenes occur in these opening moments. Yes, this portion of the film does have all the cliches with a girl tied to a bed, a little levitation, a little spew, a priest shouting while reading from the bible, and a girl screaming. It’s all there, but simply putting it at the beginning, gave me hope that once the cliched stuff was out of the way, we’d get to some more original material.

Unfortunately, that new material is bogged down with a whole lotta drama. Seung-do is overcome with grief and guilt for the death of his daughter. Father Ban is beating himself up over the botched exorcism. And the family is in mourning, filling the room with wails and tears every time they are on screen. While there are some creepy moments where Seung-do believes he is seeing signs that his daughter is still somehow alive and Father Ban reads some foreboding chapters in historical tomes about demons, most of the time we are treated to a whole lot of angsty, grief, sorrow, and drama. So much so that I felt that it outweighed any of the possession stuff.

The acting is good. I don’t speak Korean, but it did feel as if the drama unfolding was done by capable players. Filmmaker Moon-Sub Hyun adds a few moments of mood, showing depictions of hell and the afterlife in dreams and hallucinations and a lot of the effects succeed in being both creepy and original, especially a scene where a giant moth crawls out of the dead girl’s mouth. But these cool effects scenes and periods of creep are few and far between. I also liked the way the film integrates both medical and religious horror into the mix, as DEVILS STAY does have elements of the 90’s Eric Red film BODY PARTS.

But DEVILS STAY is dramatic horror that is way too heavy on the drama for my tastes. DEVILS STAY is a very well-made film on all parts; in front of and behind the camera, but if you’re looking for some potent demon possession and exorcism, this film ain’t it.