The Wailing (2016): Every Twist Explained

Korean horror film, The Wailing, is a two and a half hour joy ride of horror. The film almost makes it feel like it takes its audience on a thrilling journey throughout a number of different horror movie genres. Because of this, the audience will be kept on their toes throughout the film, unaware of how the film would conclude.

The film has elements of a plague, zombies, witchcraft, possession, ghosts, and demons, and never really give at what’s actually going on until the last few moments of the film. Here is a list explaining every twist in The Wailing.

10 The Final Genre

As the genre continues to unfold, twist, and change throughout the film, the viewers are left to just wait, anticipating what exactly is going on. As mentioned, the film starts out making it appear to be just another zombie/infection flick. Select people in a town go crazy, savagely murder their families, while totally distorting their body with welts and injuries. Then it changes. 

It then digresses into a possession story, which takes on the majority of the run time. The main character’s daughter gets possessed, allegedly. Viewers don’t really know for sure until the final scenes in the movie, which is what makes this film so great. The story concludes with a demonic possession, leaving that as the main horror genre. 

9 The Woman In White

The woman in white known as Moo-Myung (which means “no name“ in Korean), is in fact a ghost. Fans see her a number of times throughout the film, always as if she is chasing the Stranger. But in the ending of the film, a toss up is thrown at the audience. Il-Gwang, the shaman who had been “helping” the family the entire time, tells the main character that the woman in white is actually the evil spirit. This mix up leaves Jong-Goo, who just wants to save his daughter, extremely conflicted. The way Moo-Myung appears in this scene confirms the fact that she is a spirit. Many ghosts in classic Asian horror have bluish skin to represent the paleness of death, which Moo-Myung displays here. But just because she is a spirit, does not mean she is evil. 

8 The Stranger

Throughout the film, the Japanese Stranger is known to be the antagonist. Viewers learn that he has possessed a number of people based on the amount of items and photos he had in his house, and that Jong-Goo’s daughter is now one of them. But in a strange sense, this character makes the viewers feel pity for him. 

Though the evidence is right in front of them, his facial expressions and fear make audiences sympathize in specific scenes, such as when he is being chased by Jong-Goo and his friends.

7 The Demon

After briefly confusing the audience, the film reveals that the Japanese Stranger was actually in fact a demon the entire time. His goal was to possess people, just for the sake of it. To cause a little havoc in the small Korean town. The Stranger survives his fall off the mountain and the car accident, only to come back and finish the process of his possession. In the final moments of the film, viewers finally see the true face of evil.

6 The Shaman

It is also revealed towards the ending that the Shaman was working with the demon instead of against him like he claimed. Moo-Myung knows this, so she curses him and strikes fear into his heart. 

One of the confusing points of the film is the fact that the shaman was evil. Many fans are unsure if he had been working with the Stranger the entire time, during the exorcism, or had it only been in those last moments? Either way, it is clear to viewers that he is the one to “clean up” and takes all the photos the Stranger keeps of his victims.

5 The Family

Another question many fans have is, why this family, what did they do to deserve the Stranger’s curse? The simple answer is nothing, but a matter of chance. Jung-Goo didn’t disturb the Stranger until after the possession had already begun, until after he had already met up with Hyo-Jin. The Stranger was terrorizing a number of people in the village, Jung-Goo’s family just happened to be next in line.

4 The Possession

Before the climax of the film, The Wailing makes audience members believe that the possession has been cured from Hyo-Jin. She is normal, loving, and happy once again. Until, one moment she is not.

Just like the other killings, Hyo-Jin snapped. She killed each member of her family, without hesitation. By the time the possession fully took hold, the young and loving girl was completely lost to the demon.

3 The Choice

The moment that decided the fate of Jung-Goo and his family was the moment that Moo-Myung gave him a choice. All he had to do was to wait for three rooster calls. 

Moo-Myung has warded the house from the demon. The ward would’ve completely blocked the entrance for the demon. He wouldn’t have been able to enter to kill. She continued to warn him, “if you go now, your entire family will die.” He tried to wait but the more time that passed the more he became impatient. The more he distracted Moo-Myung and put his faith in the wrong people. He made the choice to break the ward as he entered the house. As he did so, the small flower Moo-Myung placed on the door shriveled up and died. Evil was able to enter.

2 The Illness

The illness from the beginning of the film ends up becoming the physical representation of the demonic possessions. While they look, and act, almost like zombies, the people “infected” aren’t sick with an actual disease at all, like the police believed. The illness was the possession. The characters seen throughout the film that seemed like savages had been the Stranger’s previous victims. The naked woman at the police station was discovered the next day to have murdered her entire family in the same manner as the previous murders.

1 The Ending

The ending of the film is actually the same way the movie begins. One family member is left alive, while the rest has been brutally murdered. The murderer always looks catatonic, with a severe skin rash. Hyo-Jin completes this cycle as Jung-Goo reminisces about the good times with his daughter. 

The Stranger will just continue to have new victims. In a deleted scene, it shows Moo-Myung watching a car with the Stranger and Il-Gwang driving off, away from the town, to their next possession.

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