The latest cinematic offering of demon possession horror, Devils Stay, is in good company these days; this new South Korean film joins the recent likes of The Pope’s Exorcist, The Exorcist: Believer and The Exorcism. However, as old hat as Hyun Moon-seop’s big-screen debut comes across, its staleness is more due to story than timing. Delaying this film until now — it was shot in 2020 — certainly doesn’t make it any less hoary, but the real issue here is a refusal to abandon or, at the very least, shake up an overused formula.
On the surface, Devils Stay does seem different than usual. The victim is another young woman, yes, but she is pronounced dead long before the final exorcism can even take place. In fact, the film starts off with said character’s funeral; So-mi (Lee Re) died from what looks to be an unsuccessful heart transplant. And for nearly the remainder of the story, the three-day ceremony serves as the setting. Using a traditional Korean funeral as the backdrop is unconventional yet also beneficial to the overall sense of atmosphere. There is now so much urgency in the air, as opposed to those films where the evil entity is slow acting.
In addition to providing ambience both plausible and eerie, the funeral creates obstacles for the film’s ostensible hero, So-mi’s father (Park Shin-yang). Unlike the more typical responses of the funeral’s other attendees, heart surgeon Seung-do channels his sorrow into righting a wrong; he simply won’t let his daughter go after failing to save her the first time around. It’s here where the director shows the most promise as he convincingly blends the story’s authentic parts — such as grief — with the fantastical.
Another less expected element here is the history of the demon. Without giving everything away, Devils Stay sneaks a peek at an arguably more interesting subplot about the origin of the evil. That dip into darker waters is brief, but nevertheless the implication of this detour is intriguing. Abandoning it for more generic material is unfortunate.
The film starts to run low on creativity once the exorcist shows up again to help Seung-do as well as redeem himself. Lee Min-ki handsomely wears the clerical collar here, but his character, Priest Ban, is tritely conceived and executed. Having him mix it up in a curtailed bar fight doesn’t mitigate his clichéd sense of being either. Just having tropey Ban around dampens the film’s earlier attempts at realism.
At first, Devils Stay feels inspired on account of its main — but also not ultimate — setting. Dropping viewers into such an emotionally charged and miserable space for so long is dissimilar to those stories where the victim’s pre-possession life is detailed and emphasized for the sake of contrast. Meanwhile, Hyun gets straight to business and makes the demonic occupancy loud and extensive. The second and last act are indeed weighed down by the presence of both the routine priest and exorcism, although Lee Chang-Jae’s striking cinematography makes the ritual a bit more tolerable.
More bothersome than Devils Stay’s shortage of creativity is its inability to make a lasting impression. Nothing here really sticks with you after watching. Decent performances, a fruitful setting, and eye-catching visuals all help to some degree, but even they can’t do much to overcome this film’s more pressing creative demons.
Courtesy of Well Go USA, Devils Stay plays in U.S. theaters starting December 6.
Pictured: Devils Stay poster courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.