Exhuma(2024)

Plot Summary

• Renowned Korean shaman and her protégé, Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) are enlisted by a wealthy Korean American family to identify the mysterious illness of the family's newborn son. Hwa-rim uncovers the curse to be a 'Grave's Call', a vengeful ancestor's spirit haunting them. The family's patriarch, Park Ji-yong, entrust them to relocate the grave to appease the ancestor, his grandfather. Hwa-rim enlists colleagues, a Feng shui master Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) and a mortician Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin).Sang-deok specializes in selling burial locations for the wealthy, while Yeong-geun owns a funeral home. During their first encounter with Ji-yong, Sang-deok becomes wary when Ji-yong insists on cremating the grave, which is located in a remote mountain near the North Korean border. Sang-deok backs out, sensing a sinister energy. However, Hwa-rim convinces them that she can perform rituals while the grave is being dug to avoid the curse. Ji-yong tells them about a famous monk named 'Gisune,' who provided the grave location for his grandfather.Hwa-rim and Bong-gil perform the ritual, and the excavation proceeds smoothly. One of the grave-diggers severs the head of a human-headed snake, which triggers a bad omen. Yeong-geun insists on cremating the coffin once the rain stops so they store it at a nearby ward. The local custodian opens the coffin and releases the vengeful entity inside, Ji-yong's grandfather. The entity targets his bloodline, killing Ji-yong's parents and Ji-yong himself. The grandfather is revealed to be a Japanese loyalist during the Korean occupation era. Before he can reach the newborn baby, Sang-deok cremates the coffin, abolishing the curse.Months later, Yeong-geun informs Sang-deok about the disturbed gravedigger who killed a snake. He revisits the cursed gravesite and discovers the head of an 'onna' along with a double burial site for a seven-footed standing coffin. He enlists Hwa-rim, Bong-gil, and Yeong-geun to dispose of the coffin. The four excavate it and rest at a temple, where Hwa-rim learns about Gisune Monk, who is Japanese. That night, Bong-gil witnesses a seven-foot figure obliterating a human and pigs. They find the coffin ripped from the inside. Bong-gil gets possessed and the other three witness the creature turn into a ball of fire and fly back to the mountain. The four are taken to a hospital and Bong-gil recovers after surgery.Hwa-rim investigates the creature's origin through the possessed Bong-gil. Sang-deok returns to the grave and finds the creature dormant on the coordinates written on the tombstone. He discovers that the grave's robbers were Korean patriots attempting to unearth a metal pole as part of a Japanese military conquest in Korea. Sang-deok, Hwa-rim, and Yeong-geun devise to unearth the pole when the creature rises after midnight. Hwa-rim will distract the shogun while the others dig. A vision reveals Monk Kitsune embedding a katana inside a decapitated samurai's body, turning the samurai into a ghoul, with Ji-yong's grandfather's grave serving as a cover for the relic. Sang-deok realizes the pole is a sword embedded in the creature's body. Using the Korean patriots' wooden tool and blood, he slays the creature based on his elemental knowledge and regains consciousness with the others by his bedside. The four later attend Sang-deok's daughter's wedding.

Storyline

• The process of excavating an ominous grave unleashes dreadful consequences buried underneath.