Bedevilled [Blu-ray]

Bedevilled was one of the films that I didn't have time to fit in at last year's Frightfest but with its release on DVD this week I made good on a second chance.

While American horror and thrillers tend to languish in remakes and torture porn, it's great to see Korean filmmakers still finding ways to tell engaging and thought-provoking horror stories, as is the case with Bedevilled.

Bedevilled tells the story of city girl Hae-Won who, after an altercation at work, heads on vacation to an island to meet estranged childhood friend Bok-Nam.

It's here that Hae-Won witnesses the pressure cooker that Bok-Nam calls life. Bok-Nam is belittled by the village elders, abused by her cheating husband and forced to work on the farm.

Director Jang Cheol-Su notches up the tension slowly and brutally as we experience Bok-Nam's abuse on a daily basis.

Unlike I Spit On Your Grave or Last House on the Left, the brutality here isn't confined to a single incident; Bok-Nam's pain starts with sunrise and doesn't end at sunset. The pain is constant and sharp.

The beatings are tough to watch, but what makes them tougher is the sense of normalcy that the villagers have to witnessing them.

What's more, Hae-Won's apathetic "see no evil, hear no evil response" to her friend's situation implicates her as much as Bok-Nam's torturers.

Hae-Won isn't portrayed as vain or arrogant but rather as someone whose life in the city has allowed her to compartmentalise her friend as something less than human.

She's educated and privileged and yet she doesn't help her friend - a lazy form of evil.

When events come to head and tragedy strikes, Bok-Nam eventually decides enough is enough and takes arms against her oppressors and her friend.

The film is a slow-boil so that when the violence does erupt and revenge is taken, it's shocking, cathartic and ultimately sad - reminiscent of the denouement of Old Boy.

The film sees the evaporation of a friendship that could have saved two lives rather than the life of the one person left standing at the end of the film.

And that's the real horror that stays with you after the credits roll.

Bedevilled is a Korean film written and directed by Cheol-so Jang. Even though I saw it at Grimmfest, I wouldn't class it as a horror film, despite its particularly violent ending. It treads more in the realm of a dark drama, with things progressing slowly as we look into the characters lives and watch things steadily unfold over the two hour running time.

The story itself follows Hae Won, a high strung, frigid and callous financial worker living in Seoul. This makes her an unlikeable character from the off (she is one of those people you'd describe as "that b***h from work") and things take a turn for the worse as stress gets the better of her and she's forced to take a vacation. She decides to finally visit her old childhood friend who she has been avoiding that lives on a small rural island called Moo-do. It is here we meet Bok Nam who has spent her whole life living with the nine residents of the island. She's an interesting character, a simple and pleasant person that doesn't want to face her problems but is constantly having to deal with them everyday.

Bok Nams problems are no small feat though because when Hae Won visits her friend, she gets to see the harsh treatment Bok Nam endures at the hands of the other inhabitants, and the pain she's had to hold in for so long.

The other characters, sadly, lack any kind of depth, with the small island community being incredibly despicable and hateful people. The men give off an air of sexual menace and all the old women natter and bicker about needing strong men around to do the work and rarely show compassion in the hardest of times.

The film is shot wonderfully, capturing the natural beauty of the island in contrast to its smalll community. It really does have a rare, timeless quality to it which is hard to find in most films these days, like stepping into an alien world you know little to nothing about but slowly learn about its strange and sometime shocking ways.

There really isn't much else to say about this film. Much like Chan-wook Park's Vengeance trilogy, you will be sent on an emotional roller-coaster, from sadness, appalled, to white knuckled anger but all through it you'll be gripped to the very end. It's a slow burner of a film and any action junkies or gore lovers will be disappointed but anyone that wants to watch an engaging film that is at times unsettling and always testing your ability to care and empathize with characters will certainly enjoy this. That's about it. I couldn't recommend this film enough and its one that will certainly stick with you.

I really loved this film, I found it quite sad and I was really cheering Bok-nam on but I really felt for her. I also liked tat it was told more from Hae-won's point of view and that she's a really unlikeable character.
I really like korean films, I often go for horror, but I'm a massive fan of these type of films, the female vengeance theme is portrayed so well in korean cinema, I think it's because they are not straight forward thrillers, the story is always emotive and has twists but the characters are always so interesting, they are normal women that have been turned into phsychos but they have this passion and motherly instinct that makes you really enjoy watching them obtain their satisfaction.

This is a great example of that type of film, but it's a little different to Princess Aurora and Lady Vengeance in the setting and the characters yet all the traits that make the story so amazing are there.