‘Devils Stay’ Review – Korean Exorcism Movie Can’t Overcome Its Own Creative Demons

The latest cinematic offering of demon possession horror, Devils Stay, is in good company these days; this new South Korean film joins the recent likes of The Pope’s Exorcist, The Exorcist: Believer and The Exorcism. However, as old hat as Hyun Moon-seop’s big-screen debut comes across, its staleness is more due to story than timing. Delaying this film until now — it was shot in 2020 — certainly doesn’t make it any less hoary, but the real issue here is a refusal to abandon or, at the very least, shake up an overused formula.

On the surface, Devils Stay does seem different than usual. The victim is another young woman, yes, but she is pronounced dead long before the final exorcism can even take place. In fact, the film starts off with said character’s funeral; So-mi (Lee Re) died from what looks to be an unsuccessful heart transplant. And for nearly the remainder of the story, the three-day ceremony serves as the setting. Using a traditional Korean funeral as the backdrop is unconventional yet also beneficial to the overall sense of atmosphere. There is now so much urgency in the air, as opposed to those films where the evil entity is slow acting.

In addition to providing ambience both plausible and eerie, the funeral creates obstacles for the film’s ostensible hero, So-mi’s father (Park Shin-yang). Unlike the more typical responses of the funeral’s other attendees, heart surgeon Seung-do channels his sorrow into righting a wrong; he simply won’t let his daughter go after failing to save her the first time around. It’s here where the director shows the most promise as he convincingly blends the story’s authentic parts — such as grief — with the fantastical.