For this week’s K-Drama Review we’re talking about ‘The Guest’. If you like gore, demon possessions and crime, this is the K-drama for you.
‘The Guest’ is a 2018 production from OCN and has 16 episodes. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of horror but I loved the OST by O3ohn so much that I decided to give it a try. It’s not the most logical jump, I guess, but I did it anyways.
The drama is about three adults who’ve all had their families torn apart by a ghost called ‘Sohn’ or Park Il Do.
The Characters
There’s Yoon Hwa-pyung portrayed by Kim Dong Wook. Hwa-pyung grew up in a hereditary shaman family and that’s where the possessions start to take place. He himself gets possessed by Park Il Do as a child.
Then there’s the priest Choi Yoon played by Kim Jae-wook who you might be familiar with from ‘Voice’ or ‘Her Private Life’. His Christian name is Mateo and he’s an exorcist priest who’s trying his best. His brother was also a priest and visited Hwa-pyung when he was possessed. That didn’t end all too well.
Kang Kil-young is the last of the three, portrayed by Jung Eun-Chae. She’s a cop, just like her mom. Her mother died after saving Choi Yoon from his brother.
Obviously they’re all carrying a lot of childhood trauma. Twenty years later, they all meet because people keep getting possessed and they work in tandem to exorcise the ghosts and to save the innocents. All the while trying to discover who’s body Park Il Do is in and to get rid of him forever. It’s clearly not as easy as it sounds, but that’s the basic gist of it.
Scares and Dynamics
‘The Guest’ had some great scares. I’m not talking jumpscares, because I’m not really a fan of those. I’m talking psychological scares with a great dose of costume design and excellent camera work to make it grotesque. The first three episodes I was legit looking through the gaps between my fingers.
I really liked the dynamic between the three main actors and I also loved the fact that there’s zero romance involved.
Despite some great acting and interesting depiction of exorcisms, I do have a couple of issues with ‘The Guest’. My issue mainly sits in the last two episodes which I thought were rather horrible. I also have issues with the ending, but I can’t delve into that because I’m trying to keep this spoiler free.
I wish I had kept tags to see how many times they say ‘Park Il Do’ throughout the series, the same with the amount of choking. You’d think a demon would enjoy different ways to kill people.
Here’s a fun drinking game. Everytime they say ‘Park Il Do’ or if someone gets choked, take a shot. Your liver will hate me, but at least you’ll have a good time.
Overall, if you enjoy crime-horror, definitely give the K-drama ‘The Guest’ a shot, because it was fun to watch, if the finale had been different I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But it is what it is.
Take a look at the trailer:
