# Exhuma (2024) Review: Shamans, Graves and a Sharp Turn > Exhuma is Jang Jae-hyun's Korean occult thriller about a shaman, a geomancer and a cursed family grave. A superb first half and a star cast outweigh a messier second. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/exhuma-2024-review/ Published: 2026-07-23 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 3.5/5 ## Verdict Yes, with reservations. Fans of occult horror will relish its rituals and cast, though a divisive mid-film shift makes the second half less frightening than the first. ## Is Exhuma worth watching? **Yes. Exhuma is a gripping, atmospheric Korean occult thriller whose first half ranks with the best supernatural horror of recent years, powered by Choi Min-sik and a fearless Kim Go-eun.** Jang Jae-hyun grounds the scares in shamanic ritual, burial customs and geomancy, which gives the film a texture unlike Western possession stories. The reservation is structural: a sharp turn around the midpoint takes the story somewhere bigger and louder, and it is less unnerving for it. ## What is Exhuma about? A wealthy family living abroad is plagued by a strange, persistent affliction that seems to pass from one generation to the next. Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun), a young shaman, and her apprentice Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) trace the problem to the family's ancestral grave in Korea, and they bring in a veteran geomancer, Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik), and an undertaker, Yeong-geun (Yoo Hai-jin), to help exhume and relocate the remains. All four are professionals who have seen plenty of strange things. The grave, they soon discover, is not like the others. [Exhuma](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/exhuma-2024/) is written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun, whose earlier films The Priests and Svaha: The Sixth Finger also explored religion and the occult. It is a South Korean production in Korean, runs 134 minutes, and became one of the country's biggest hits of 2024. ## A professional team versus the unknown The film's most distinctive idea is its heroes. These are not frightened victims but specialists, each with their own expertise and their own price, and the early scenes have the pleasure of a procedural: reading the land, negotiating fees, arguing over risks. Choi Min-sik gives the geomancer a gruff, weathered authority, and his wary respect for forces he cannot see sets the tone for the whole film. Kim Go-eun is the revelation. As Hwa-rim she is sharp, modern and entirely believable as a shaman, and in the film's centrepiece ritual at the gravesite she commits to a performance of frenzied physical intensity that is the film's most electrifying passage. Lee Do-hyun and Yoo Hai-jin complete a quartet whose easy, bickering chemistry makes the audience care about them before the danger arrives. ## Dread rooted in tradition Jang is a patient builder of atmosphere. The remote mountain gravesite, the rituals performed with knives, drums and offerings, and the heavy silences between them create a creeping sense of transgression, the feeling that something sacred and dangerous is being disturbed. For viewers unfamiliar with Korean shamanism and burial customs, the details are fascinating in themselves, and the film explains just enough without slowing down. Beneath the scares, Exhuma also engages with Korea's history and the idea that the country's past has been left unresolved in the ground, a theme that gives the horror a resonance beyond its jump scares. ## Where the second half changes gear The film's biggest decision, which will not be spoiled here, comes at roughly the halfway point, when the story shifts direction and scale. It is ambitious, and it allows Jang to push his historical themes much further, but it also trades the intimate, ground-level dread of the first half for something more overtly fantastical and effects-driven. Some viewers will welcome the escalation; others, including us, found the second half less frightening and more cluttered, with a climax that leans on spectacle over atmosphere. ## Who should watch Exhuma? It is ideal for fans of occult [horror](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/horror/), viewers interested in Korean folklore and religion, and anyone who enjoys supernatural stories built around a team of experts. At 134 minutes it asks for a full evening. Expect ritual violence, disturbing imagery, animal sacrifice and some gore, though it relies more on dread than on explicit brutality; it is best for older teenagers and adults. If it gets under your skin, try these: - [The 8th Night](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/the-8th-night-2021/), another Korean supernatural thriller that draws its menace from religious myth. - [HOPE](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/hope-2026-review/), the 2026 genre hybrid from Na Hong-jin, the director whose The Wailing set the bar for Korean occult horror. ## The verdict Exhuma is a richly atmospheric occult thriller with a superb cast, a genuinely frightening first half and a distinctive grounding in Korean ritual and history. Its bigger, busier second half costs it some of its power, but the performances and the grave-digging dread make it well worth seeking out. **Rating: 3.5/5** ## Related title - [Exhuma (2024)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/exhuma-2024/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)