“Bedevilled” is another of a long line of Asian horror films that have recently hit the DVD and Blu-ray market. The film follow Hae-won (Seong-won Ji), a woman who is on the edge after incidents at her job causes her to go on a forced vacation. She travels to an island that is remote, after her best friend Bok-ham (Yeong-hie Seo) asks her to. Unknown to her, the island that she’s visiting harbors some very dark secrets. Bok-nam is falling apart as she has to constantly face violence, an abusive relationship and fear with no way out. This unleashes a rage within her. If Haw-won can’t help her escape the island, she may have to take matters into her own hands and unleash her anger towards everyone on the island.
Film Review:
Going into this film, I knew that this was my type of film, but was leery considering my track record with Asian films. But I was kind of surprised that I liked “Bedevilled”, considering the film was 115 minutes long. It’s the first horror film from Asia that I’ve enjoyed in a quite a while.
One of the reasons that I enjoyed it was the direction. Director Chul-soo Jang does a very good job with the way that he’s able to establish the film’s dark tone from the screenplay. He does that, by making building tension between the film’s three main characters. One of the reasons that it works so well, Jang does a very good job making the shocking elements in the screenplay feel very shocking and dreary. It helped build the tension up to the film’s final act. The other reason was the way that he handled the film’s death scenes. The scenes were very graphic and bloody. Jang does a very good job making the scenes effective and horrifying so that it adds to the film’s shock value.
The acting here was also very good. Jang does a very good job making the performances fit the film’s very dark tone. I thought the cast had very good chemistry, as they worked well with each other. He also gets his cast to be interested with the film’s material, which helped with the overall performances.
The screenplay written by Kwang-young Choi does a very good job bringing suspense and shocking action. One of the things that makes this screenplay good, the characters are developed very well. I liked, the way that he takes his time to develop the characters. It makes the characters become more interesting or more hated, which is needed for a film like this. It makes you engaged in the film. The other thing that the screenplay does well, the story keeps you on edge. There are a lot of shocking scenes in the film, but Choi makes them effective. Whether it’s the exploitive elements or the brutal deaths, he was effective in getting a reaction to those scenes. That helped move the story along and made it horrifying to watch.
Blu-Ray Extras:
There aren’t a lot of extras on this disc. First, it’s the behind the scenes featurette to the film. This was a very boring featurette. It focuses on the some of the film’s main scenes. It provides no information on the production and there aren’t any interviews from anyone involved with this film. When I watch a behind the scenes featurette, I want different perspectives on how the film was made. I don’t get that here, as this is a very boring featurette that should be skipped.
After that, the disc wraps up with the film’s original trailer.
Final Summary:
I was surprised that I enjoyed this film, considering I heard nothing about it going in. “Bedevilled” is a very dark horror film that will keep you on edge with it brutal deaths and shocking suspense.
Film Rating: Four Stars
Extras Rating: One Star
