Welcome back to The Rotten Horror Picture Show Podcast, where this week Clay and Amanda take on The Wailing, the acclaimed 2016 Korean horror mystery that has earned a spot at #3 on Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Horror Movies of All Time list. Directed by Na Hong-jin, this sprawling, unsettling nightmare follows a small-town police officer investigating a series of bizarre illnesses, violent incidents, and increasingly disturbing supernatural events after a mysterious stranger arrives in the area. It’s creepy, atmospheric, occasionally darkly funny, and packed with enough ambiguity to keep you questioning what you’ve actually witnessed long after the credits roll.
It definitely had me questioning what I’d just witnessed, that’s for sure!
You see, I had certain expectations of what I’d be in for with this one. Maybe not immediately. Maybe the movie would start with some mysterious Korean fisherman staring dramatically out at the ocean. Maybe eventually we’d get a majestic humpback breaching through the mist. Perhaps the supernatural evil would turn out to be some enormous demonic whale. I was open to anything!
But no.
Not a single whale.
In fact, as far as I could tell, there weren’t even any fish.
None!
Do you know how disappointing that is? You give a movie a title like The Wailing and then completely ignore the aquatic possibilities? That’s like making a movie called The Howling and not including a single wolf. Oh, wait.
And sure, Clay and Amanda have plenty to say about the film’s disturbing atmosphere, religious imagery, mysteries, supernatural elements, and deliberately confusing narrative. They’ll probably spend the episode examining every suspicious character and trying to determine what’s really happening.
Meanwhile, I’ll be sitting here wondering where the damn fish are.
Still, even without marine life, The Wailing sounds like an incredible horror experience, and if Clay and Amanda can help me understand why this movie is so highly regarded, perhaps I’ll forgive its unforgivable lack of whales.
But I won’t forget.
The Wailing deserved at least one whale.
And be sure to follow Clay and Amanda as they run down their list of horror sequels over at patreon.com/thepenskyfile!