On the outskirts of a small South Korean village, a mysterious Japanese man moves into a cabin in the woods. Shortly thereafter, an affliction begins to befall some of the village residents. It manifests as a madness in one person, causing them to murder those around them and then fall catatonic and later die. Officer Jong-goo is called in to investigate the murders and it is initially believed to be poisoning by the local mushrooms. However, Jong-goo meets an equally strange young girl who tells him that she believes the Japanese man is involved with the sickness. Superstition and suspicion give way to accusation and violence when Jong-goo goes to the man’s house and finds his own daughter’s personal effects on a shrine and she begins to manifest symptoms of the sickness.
The Wailing is a very unique type of horror story. In addition to being well made and suspenseful, it also has these unusual shifts in tone throughout. It starts as straight horror and when we meet Jung-goo the film almost becomes a bumbling cop comedy before it shifts again into a tense thriller and race against time. This is done effortlessly and is not jarring at all, but does make the film feel epic in scope since it acts as several films in one. Great performances and surprises around every corner make The Wailing a great Friday night Blu-ray and chill film. The disc includes a promotional featurette, a ‘making of’ featurette, and the trailer.
Hilary, a teenage woman who’s just gotten her driver’s license, catches her boyfriend cheating on her. To make matters worse, someone rear ends her mom’s new car that she’s driving on home. As punishment, even though she was not at fault, her parents don’t allow her to come on vacation with them, leaving her home alone. Unfortunately, it seems she’s traded personal information with a demented serial killer who rear ended her car on purpose. She’s trapped in the house with two friends on a dark and stormy night when the Fender Bender killer comes calling.
It’s not the most original story to come along but Fender is better done than most. Writer/Director Mark Pavia, a careful student of slasher/stalker films, creates enough of those popular moments and jump scares to keep the film fun, albeit somewhat very familiar. Call it a strong homage to the bygone era with an appropriately creepy leather clad stalker. The disc also features a unique ‘retro VHS cut of the film’ which allows you to view the film in a glorious lo-def VHS recreation. There are also two commentary tracks, a behind the scenes featurette, and a vintage trailer reel.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.