The Wailing () is a 2016 South Korean horror film written and directed by Na Hong-jin and starring Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee. The film centers on a policeman who investigates a series of mysterious killings and illnesses in a remote Korean village called Gokseong in order to save his daughter. The film was both a commercial and critical success.
Plot
After a mysterious Japanese man and his Cane Corso dog arrive in Gokseong, a small village in the mountains of South Korea, a mysterious infection breaks out and causes the villagers to become deranged and violently kill their families.
One night at the police station, a naked woman appears outside. The next day, the police find the woman has become infected and murdered her family. Officer Jong-goo meets a mysterious young woman called Moo-myeong (“no name” in Korean), who tells him that the Japanese man is the culprit, and is actually an evil spirit. When Jong-goo steps away for a moment, Moo-myeong vanishes and a demonic figure with glowing red eyes ambushes him; he awakens in his bed.
A local hunter tells Jong-goo and Officer Oh Seong-bok that he saw the stranger, with glowing red eyes, eating from a deer carcass in the forest. As he continues to experience disturbing dreams about the demonic figure, Jong-goo decides to question the stranger. He enlists the help of Seong-bok's nephew, a Japanese-speaking deacon named Yang I-sam (“two-three” in Korean). They investigate the stranger's house in the forest, discovering a shrine containing photographs of murdered villagers, as well as some of their belongings. On the way home, Seong-bok shows Jong-goo a shoe that belongs to Jong-goo's daughter, Hyo-jin. Hyo-jin becomes sick, displaying symptoms similar to the infected. Jong-goo returns to the stranger's house, but learns that the evidence has been burned. Infuriated, he smashes up the worship room, kills the stranger's guard dog, and orders the stranger to leave the village.
Jong-goo's family discovers the bloody body of a dead goat hanging in front of their gate. Jong-goo experiences partial paralysis, and his wife and mother-in-law take him to see an acupuncturist. They return home to find that Hyo-jin has stabbed her neighbor to death. Distraught about Hyo-jin, Jong-goo's mother-in-law seeks help from a shaman, Il-gwang. Il-gwang believes that an evil spirit has possessed Hyo-jin, but is unable to exorcise it. After learning that Jong-goo disturbed the stranger, whom Il-gwang says is a demon, he prepares a death-hex ritual. At the same time, the stranger performs a ritual in his home with a photograph of another victim, Park Choon-bae. Both the stranger and Hyo-jin experience excruciating pain as Il-gwang's ritual progresses. Panicking, Jong-goo stops the ritual and takes his daughter to the hospital. The stranger, having narrowly survived the death-hex, sees Moo-myeong outside his house.
The following day, Jong-goo gathers his companions to hunt down the stranger. As they search his house, they are attacked by the reanimated corpse of Park Choon-bae, who injures Yang I-sam, giving the stranger time to flee. The stranger sees Moo-myeong watching him from afar. As Jong-goo's group drives back down the mountain, the stranger's body suddenly lands on the windshield. They dump it off a cliff as Moo-myeong watches. Jong-goo returns to find Hyo-jin's health has improved.
Il-gwang drives to Jong-goo's house, where he encounters Moo-myeong and vomits blood. After his ritual fails, he leaves town in terror but a swarm of flying insects stops him. He calls Jong-goo, warning him that Moo-myeong is the real demon, and the stranger was a shaman who was trying to kill her. Meanwhile, the wounded Yang I-sam receives news that his uncle Oh Seong-bok has killed his family.
Hyo-jin disappears. While searching for her, Jong-goo meets Moo-myeong, who claims the stranger is still alive, she has set a trap for the demon, and that Il-gwang is secretly cooperating with him. Jong-goo asks if she is a human or a ghost, and she gives a cryptic answer. Jong-goo notices she is wearing the personal items of the victims, including his daughter's hairpin. Believing this to be proof she is responsible, he returns home before the third cry of the rooster, nullifying Moo-myeong's trap. He discovers that Hyo-jin has murdered his wife and mother-in-law; she then attacks him. Il-gwang arrives and takes photographs of Jong-goo's dead family as Hyo-jin sits in a trance. As Jong-goo lays dying, he remembers happier times with his daughter and assures her that he will protect her.