In today’s video, we will go through the events of 2016’s Horror Thriller film, The
Wailing.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. Make sure to give this video a thumbs up, comment
on what your favorite part was, and subscribe to our channel for more.
The movie starts in a small village of Goksung in South Korea. One early morning, police
officer, Jong-Goo wakes up and leaves to investigate a strange murder case. He reaches the crime
scene and sees the murderer wounded and covered in blood. He is sitting outside the house,
handcuffed. Jong-Goo sees two dead bodies brutally murdered. One police officer tells
him that the murdered man was killed somewhere out and dragged later to the house. The murderer
looks like he suffered from some infectious disease and has rashes all over his body.
Jong-Goo and the team soon go to a shed near the house. They see the place covered in blood
and declare it the ordinal murder spot. The place has many candles lit around, indicating
some kind of ritual.
A mysterious disease outbreaks in the village. It causes rashes throughout the body, then
makes the villagers violently murder their families as their eyes glow red. One day,
officer Jong-Goo’s partner relays gossip that a Japanese stranger who lives in a secluded
house in the mountains hosts an evil spirit and started this illness in the village. But
Jong-Goo thinks that some species of poisonous wild mushroom is the cause of the illness.
Over a few days, numerous other deaths occur due to the infection. One night, Jong-Goo
is called to a crime scene of a house burning down. While investigating, he is attacked
by some infected people but is saved by other officers.
The other day, a woman was seen hanging on a tree. Jong-Goo investigates the case. One
of the officers tells him that the husband is the suspect. Later, Jong-Goo’s partner
calls him in his restaurant and tells him that the Japanese guy he talked about earlier,
tried to molest a dead woman by the river. Then the dead woman got crazy and started
going out naked in the middle of the night and attacking whoever she encountered. She
also had infectious rashes and she was the one who attacked Jong-Goo in the burnt house
the earlier day.
Jong-Goo now believes that the Japanese guy has something to do with the spreading of
the illness. While he is at the crime scene of the hung woman, a strange girl named Moo-myeong
keeps throwing stones at Jong-Goo. She enters the crime scene and shows him the murder spot
inside the house. The girl informs him that the Japanese stranger infected the woman and
is actually a ghost. She warns Jong-Goo to be aware of him. He calls his partner to come
and see the girl but all of a sudden the girl disappears. Jong-goo’s senior officer pressurizes
him and his partner to find some lead in the case. A local hunter tells Jong-goo that he
has seen a half-naked Japanese stranger eating a deer, with glowing red eyes in the mountain
forest. Jong-goo is unsettled, as he has had dreams about the exact stranger.
Later that day, Jong-goo and his partner visit the Stranger’s place. The local hunter shows
them the way. Suddenly, it starts raining and the hunter leaves them by themself. As
he tries to leave, lightning strikes and hits him. Jong-goo and his partner take him to
the hospital. In the hospital, a patient starts getting violent from the infection. Jong-goo
sees similar rashes in his body too. The patient dies soon after, bleeding from the mouth.
That night, Jong-goo’s daughter, Hyo-jin, gets sick and starts screaming in her sleep.
She describes a horrifying dream about a strange man, and she cries.
The following day, Jong-goo’s mother suspects that something is wrong with Hyo-jin. She
tells him that she will call a shaman and leaves to find him. Jong-goo then meets his
partner, who brings a deacon who can understand Japanese. They soon leave to find the Japanese
man in the mountains. They arrive at his house but do not find the man there. They then investigate
the house. Jong-goo breaks into a room and sees candles lit around it. It looks like
a ritual took place in the room. Meanwhile, his partner finds photographs of all the infected
people hidden in the cupboard. Suddenly, the deacon is attacked by the guard dog of the
house. Jong-goo pulls him and protects him. The dog frees itself and attacks them both.
They hide inside the house and block the entrance as the dog attacks them fiercely.
Soon, the Japanese man arrives and calms the dog. The deacon asks forgiveness from the
Japanese man, and the three leave the house. While driving back, Jong-goo asks his partner
about what he saw in the house. He tells him about the pictures of all the infected people
in his house. He also tells him that the strange man had some belongings of all the infected
people. He then hands Jong-goo a shoe he found in the house. It is his daughter’s.
Jong-goo heads home and asks Hyo-jin if she lost a shoe recently. He shows her the shoe
that his partner found and asks her if she met a Japanese man. She nods her head. He
asks her to tell him what she did when she met him. She screams that there’s nothing
serious and leaves. That night Jong-goo finds strange drawings in his daughter’s notebook.
He checks on her and notices rashes on her body. Hyo-jin wakes up and starts screaming
at him. She gets sick and starts showing the symptoms of the infection.
The next morning, in great anger, Jong-goo storms to the deacon, and they head to the
Japanese man’s house. Jong-goo checks the house and finds the photos and the belongings
have been burnt. He asks the man about the photos and stuff that was there earlier. He
refuses to acknowledge it at first but then tells them that he burnt them. Jong-goo asks
what his purpose is and threatens the old man about what he did with his daughter. He
asks him to leave the village peacefully. Infuriated, he destroys the stranger's ritual
room and kills the dog when it attacks him, ordering the stranger to leave the village
in three days.
The next day, Jong-goo’s mother finds the dead dog hanging in front of their house.
She cries and calls him. He cannot get up as his body is weak from his fight with the
dog the other day. Suddenly, they find Hyo-jin covered in blood. She has stabbed a woman.
Soon, the police arrive at Jong-goo’s house. Troubled by the condition of Hyo-jin, Jong-goo’s
mother calls a shaman, Il-gwang, to treat her. He says that the strange man is not a
person but the strongest ghost he has ever seen. Many people all over the village lose
their lives. The next day, as Il-gwang performs his ritual to exorcise the demon, the Japanese
man also performs his rituals in his house. Il-gwang performs his rituals, jumps, and
dances over the fire and sacrifices hens. As he stabs the effigy, both Hyo-jin and the
strange Japanese man start screaming in pain and fall unconscious. The Japanese man struggles
and drags himself outside the house. Seeing his daughter in pain, Jong-goo interrupts
the ritual and takes her to a hospital instead. Meanwhile, the Japanese man regains his consciousness
as soon as the ritual stops. That night, the deacon suggests Jong-goo go see the pastor.
The two visit the Church, but the pastor suggests Jong-goo not to believe in the ghost’s story
and just believe in the doctors.
The following day, the Japanese man runs away. Meanwhile, Jong-goo gathers around his friend
to hunt down the Japanese stranger, believing that he is responsible for the disease and
murders. They collect their weapons and head towards his home. When they reach his house,
they search for him all around but cannot find him anywhere. Suddenly, Jong-goo and
his friends are attacked by an infected man. They all fight against him. The infected person
takes a bite off the deacon’s face, and he screams in pain. They hit him with a crowbar
and spade. Suddenly, his bones start cracking automatically, and he falls to the ground
dead. One of Jong-goo’s friends spots the Japanese stranger looking at them from the
woods. They all run after him and chase him through the forest.
The man struggles to breathe while running from them. He falls and gets injured. Suddenly,
Jong-goo and his friends reach a dead end on a cliff. Jong-goo cries, saying that he
needs to find the Japanese man and save his daughter from him. The Japanese man dangles
on the cliff to hide but cannot hold much longer. He falls to the ground, and Jong-goo’s
friends hear a noise but don’t see him. The Japanese man whimpers in pain.
Unable to find the strange man in the woods, Jong-goo and his friends drive back. It starts
raining, and the car slips on the road when they nearly hit a truck approaching them.
Jong-goo gets out of their vehicle with a head injury. He sees the Japanese man lying
on the road. He realizes that he hit him with the vehicle. Jong-goo and his friends push
the dead body off the cliff as Moo-myeong watches them from the hill.
Jong-goo then immediately returns to the hospital to his daughter. Her condition has seemingly
improved. He asks her if she is okay, hugs her, and they both cry. Il-gwang suspects
that they killed the wrong person and tries contacting Jong-goo, but he doesn’t answer.
That night, Jong-goo’s partner gets infected and kills his wife. The shaman drives to Jong-goo’s,
but on his way, he encounters Moo-myeong. He suddenly starts bleeding from his mouth
and vomits. He runs from her to his house and starts a protection ritual. Suddenly,
a crow enters his house and falls dead. Il-gwang drives to Jong-goo’s. He hallucinates a
hailstorm as he drives. He gets out of his car but finds nothing. He breathes heavily
and immediately calls Jong-goo and informs him about Moo-myeong being the real demon.
Jong-goo looks for his daughter but finds her missing from her bed. He then finds Moo-myeong
near his house. Jong-goo asks her to return his daughter and confronts her for being the
ghost. But she insists that the ghost of the Japanese stranger infected her. she requests
Jong-goo to believe her. She also tells him that she had set a trap for the demon and
it will not work if Jong-goo goes back to the house. Jong-goo asks her who she is, and
she answers that she is trying to save his daughter. Sometime later, Hyo-in returns home
and enters without talking to anyone and starts eating a lot of food.
Meanwhile, the deacon goes looking for the Japanese man. He reaches a cave and encounters
the still alive Japanese stranger performing his rituals. The deacon asks the Japanese
man if he is a demon. Soon, Il-gwang calls Jong-goo and tells him not to believe Moo-myeong,
while she, in turn, tells him Il-gwang is actually in league with the real demon.
The deacon asks the strange man to tell him who he is if he is not the demon. Meanwhile,
Jong-goo asks Moo-myeong why all of this is happening. She vaguely tells him, “the father
of the daughter sinned and even tried to kill.” Jong-goo, in despair, runs to the house to
save his family. Moo-myeong suddenly grabs him and asks him not to go, and screams as
her body slowly turns white. When Jong-goo enters the house crossing the threshold, the
floral trap fades dead. He finds blood spattered all over the house, and he cries as he finds
his wife dead. Suddenly, Hyo-in stands in front of him, covered in blood. In the cave,
the strange Japanese man takes a photo of the deacon and slowly turns into a crippled
demon with red eyes.
Back at the house, Jong-goo is stabbed by his daughter. Outside the house sits Moo-myeong.
As it starts to rain, Il-gwang arrives at Jong-goo’s house in his car. He enters the
house and clicks photos of all the dead members of Jong-goo’s family. While returning to
his car, he unintentionally drops a box filled with photos of all the other infected victims.
The movie ends as Jong-goo lies dying in his home; he remembers happier times with his
daughter and assures her he will protect her.
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