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South Korea’s preoccupation with saving souls from demonic possession seems to be on the rise. After viewing Devils Stay, I had to consider whether this movie directed by Moon-Sub Hyun is even better than past well-known films like The Priests, Exuma and Dark Nuns.
The better developed films are those that concern a parent looking out for their child, like in The Exorcist. Second on the list is when cultural rather than spiritual beliefs are challenged. Third is coming up with a scenario that hasn’t been done before. In this film’s case, the incident occurred during a medical transplant. Although the latter film I named attempted to mix in a bit of folk, this one seems more concerned about what current faiths can do.
So-Mi’s (Lee Re) replacement heart came from a donor who should not have signed up. After this person joined a presumably satanic cult, everything that can go wrong will. The tale gets interesting when the father believes he can free her. But the fight for rescuing her soul doesn’t get very supernatural. That is, not a lot of crazy effects from a James Wan movie are being used.
There are a few bits slightly borrowed from the exorcist, but overall, the real scary bits come from how ineffective Dr. Cha Seung-Do (Park Shin-Yang) is at attempting to save his daughter’s soul from eternal damnation. She did nothing to deserve this fate. When Father Van (Lee Min-Ki) tries to understand why this happened, what this priest learns is just as frightening! I won’t spoil this detail, but what’s presented is a fairly twisted tale where evil has found new ways to propagate!
Unfortunately, pacing problems affect parts of this film. Until the two men teamed up, I struggled to keep up with wondering who is more important in saving the soul of the girl. When my money’s on the cleric looking for the reason concerning why So-Mi was targeted, at least the backstory reveal is as good as watching Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity. The only difference is that what happened here makes me assume the circumstances are accidental rather than intentional.
3 Stars out of 5
Devils Stay Movie Trailer
