Exhuma (2024)

Halfway through Exhuma, the movie digs up a second story, and the seam between the two never fully holds. Shaman Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and her protégé Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) take a job from a rich Korean American family whose newborn is gravely ill, and she traces the trouble to a restless ancestor in a badly placed grave. Moving it takes feng shui master Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik), who needs the money for his daughter’s wedding, and undertaker Ko Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin). The grave sits high on a lonely mountain close to the border with North Korea, the client insists on cremation, and Sang-deok’s instincts scream no. Jang Jae-hyun stages the rituals so carefully that the dread lives in the details, and Kim Go-eun’s ceremony scenes crackle. Choi Min-sik grounds it all. Once the history surfaces, the plot gets tangled. It holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 7.8 because the craft is chilling and the story wobbles. $173 says you nudge your bed a few inches after this and tell everyone it was for the feng shui.

What works: The veteran cast is excellent, and the shaman rituals and exhumation scenes are staged with a realism that makes the horror land.

What doesn’t: The shift into a second storyline halfway through is clumsy, and the plot gets harder to follow as it piles on its history.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who like their chills slow, steeped in folklore and carrying something real to say about the past.