Byeonshin / Metamorphosis (2019) - Slow-burn supernatural horror movie that goes back to the style of the seventies without being old-fashioned - 8/10 (01/04/21)

Byeonshin, internationally known as Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie from South Korea. The movie starts with a scene where a priest tries an exorcism on a girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. The exorcism ends in a disaster and the reclusive priest thinks about moving abroad to take some distance from those horrible events. Around the same time, his brother's family moves to a new city. Even though the house looks amazing, the peace is quickly disturbed by a creepy neighbour who seems to be performing rituals with dead animals in the middle of the night. Even though the police starts investigating, they can't find any proofs for such rituals. Every single day, strange things start occurring in the neighbourhood and especially in the family. The mother has an emotional breakdown during breakfast. The father sneaks into his daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night but can't recall it the next day. As things slowly spiral out of control, the family asks the priest to intervene on his last day before moving abroad. The exorcist doesn't realize however that he has already been targeted by a menacing supernatural force as well.

This horror movie convinces with a steadily increasing gloomy atmosphere rather than with predictable jump scares. The acting performances add a lot to the atmosphere as one constantly tries to figure out who is acting normally and who might be possessed. The locations have been chosen with care and especially the opening exorcism, the neighbour's creepy house and the car accident scene will leave lasting impressions. The light and sound effects are employed with care rather than with exaggeration and complement the story appropriately.

In the end, Byeonshin or Metamorphosis, is a supernatural horror movie for those who have gotten sick of Hollywood's predictable sequels of jump-scare horror flicks. This movie goes back to the roots of classic horror cinema of the seventies as it values atmosphere over shock effects. This film doesn't include much gore but rather focuses on psychological horror elements. What we have here is a slow burn that starts with a bang and then slows down to gradually unfold its bleak vibes until a dramatic finale. This film doesn't quite rival some other excellent South Korean horror movies of recent memory such as The Wailing, Rampant and Train to Busan but it proves once again that South Korean cinema is currently the best in the world in my opinion.