31 Days of Asian Horror: The Guest (2018)

Today I’m focusing on a drama that I have had on my watchlist for much longer than it needed to be. I tried watching it back when it was airing but had some other things happen that led to not having time for it, and since Netflix picked it up the end of last year it’s been a drama that I knew I needed to rush to the top of my list. That obviously still took till now, but I still finally got around to watching it now, and am really glad that I finally did. While I probably missed a lot waiting this long, it was nice to go into the drama without having to wait for it to air, and binged it in a couple of days.

After a powerful demon is found possessing the weak, a trio consisting of a psychic born to a shaman family (Kim Dong Wook), a Catholic priest (Kim Jae Wook), and police officer (Jung Eun Chae) are forced to join forces to stop the demon. The drama was directed by Kim Hong Seon, who's previous works included the first season of Voice and Black. It premiered on OCN's new Wednesday/Thursday slot on September 12, 2018. There's been some talk of a season two, and back in 2019 a movie was in the process but neither projects have had more momentum.

While the drama is an exorcism story and focuses a good chunk on the possession, demons, and religion, it ends up not living in that world for most of the show. One of the most surprising aspects of the drama was in the investigation storyline. I thought it was going to center more heavily on the exorcisms or dive more into religious topics, and I was taken aback with how much the show was spent on it - almost like I was watching a crime show. Setting the show as more of a crime thriller than a horror really worked well for me. While exorcism stories aren’t something I avoid, they are in a grey area for me. If the plot is too heavily into religion I find myself not caring about the show or the characters and so it’s always a tricky venture for me. With the differences in the characters, and the heavy crime thriller elements I enjoyed it throughout.

Don’t get me wrong - if you are a horror lover, I think you would really enjoy this series, and it does have some truly great scenes that are disturbing and creepy. However, I do think it starts to follow a bit too formulaic pattern for the insertion of the horror. As I talked about above, the story follows much more closer to that of a crime thriller, and a lot of the storyline is based on that. The horror and scares tend to always come at the end of the episodes, and so a lot of the scares are too predictable. Despite this, what we got of the horror is interesting and deep. It’s creepy and dark and focuses much more on the realness of the evil as opposed to the antics. It also helped the reveals to be not only surprising but more devastating. Coming back to the realness of the world and how horrible it is in the viewpoint of demons worked well for the series and the real horrors of the world integrated well.

The dramas shines most in its the focus on characters and their relationships. The trio are interesting and fun together, all being strongly independent from each other in their beliefs and actions. In any other other drama, this might be used as a main conflict point, but the show focuses their relationship as more of a trio of siblings and despite their differences understand that they have to fall on each other because they share the same grief. All have been affected by the demon in some regard, but their differences are vast. The drama doesn’t try to hide that, and develops a real relationship between the three that allows for each of their personal beliefs to shine through and grow, with the understanding that they need each other. Not just to be able to heal, but because what they are fighting can not be fought alone. Each brings something to the table and their differences are interesting to watch. The trio spend a lot of time together and I came to really love the energy all three brought out of each other. It creates some great scenes together that not only lighten the mood, but also ground the horror. It’s a great found family plot.

Because the drama focuses more of the investigation of the trio, we don’t spend too much time with the main group of cops that Gil Young works with, and it adds an interesting dynamic that allows for the drama to not fall into a lot of the stereotypes that are prevalent in other crime dramas. I really enjoyed this aspect, as I was not spending my time annoyed with the investigation and how the cops were handling it, especially since this was in an area that was supernatural and a harder sell to the general population. Gil Young and her partner, Go Bong Sang (played by Park Ho San), have a great relationship together. He has taken her under his wing since her father’s passing and is a constant support to her. Even towards the end of the series when he has to face some developments that would question his faith of her, he trusts her enough to value her decisions.

I’m really happy that I was able to pick up the drama now, and happy that is now easily accessible for a much larger audience. I think the Netflix audience is a good choice for it. The cast and storyline are solid, and it’s hard to stop once you start. If you are looking for a darker show to watch for the season, or anytime, check out the drama.

The Guest is currently streaming on Netflix.

+++