The newly released Dune: Part 2 is garnering much attention at the international box office, but in South Korea, it had to settle for the second-best position. It’s Exhuma, a locally produced occult drama-thriller, that has been rampaging across the box office, even in its second week. The supernatural horror film took home an impressive $17.2 million as the domestic gross for Friday through Sunday, accounting for 69% of the total business.
An Unprecedented Phenomenon
What is more surprising is the fact that Exhuma made $14.5 million its first weekend eating up the revenue for its first showing and made $17.5 million on its second showing a week later which is a 19% increase as now more than $14.5 million is the debut of the second week for Exhuma. As for February 22, Kobis, a monitoring service of the Korean Film Council, reports that the film has already made $43.5 million. It has also attracted 6 million viewers only in 11 days something which an average hit title takes around three weeks to do.
It can be stressed that now even such a Hollywood game-changer as Dune: Part 2 has not managed to beat the surpassing 552,000 viewers, which makes Exhuma’s achievements ever more amazing. Written and directed by Jang Jae-hyun, this is the third feature film by him after The Priests (2015) and Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019). The film has also created some buzz owing to its depiction of the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945 which is relevant on the eve of the March 1st Independence Movement Day.
The movie features Choi Min-sik, an actor of the Oldboy fame, author Kim Go-eun, as well as Yoo Hae-jin and Lee Do-hyun in his film debut.
In Exhuma, Kim Go-eun as Hwa-rim is a shamam and along with her medium partner Bong-gil (Lee) is invited by a Korean family residing in the United States regarding a curse placed on them. The curse is said to have been initiated by the family’s forebears which leads Hwa-rim and her aides: a fengshui master and a trauma, to unearth the tomb of the family. But then later appalling incidents arise when a certain something flees from the casket that causes deaths integrally associated with possessions.