The Wailing, the new supernatural thriller from director Na Hong-jin (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea) opened last month in South Korea, where it received a warm reception to say the least. In the wake of the film’s massive domestic box-office success, it went on to screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is opening in theaters across the U.S. today. The A.V. Club’s Benjamin Mercer recommends the film with a B+ grade, calling it “strangely haunting” and saying that the film casts a spell that “never breaks over its lengthy running time.”
Those same elements are also evident in an exclusive clip The A.V. Club is premiering below: In the clip, the rash of mysterious possessions plaguing his small town comes home for bumbling police officer Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) when his daughter, Hyo-jin, is siezed with violent nightmares of a “strange man” trying to enter her room. The ominous mood continues the next morning at breakfast, when Jong-gu’s mother-in-law tells him she’s hired a shaman to investigate the girl’s ailment.
The Wailing opens in the U.S. on June 3, and will expand throughout the summer. A list of theaters playing the film can be found here.