Exhuma (2024)

Shaman Lee Hwa-rim and her protégé Yoon Bong-gil are hired by Park Ji-yong, a rich Korean American man in Los Angeles whose newborn son is constantly sick. Hwa-rim senses that an angry ancestral spirit, the boy's great-grandfather, is cursing the family from his grave, and advises them to move it. She brings in feng shui master Kim Sang-deok and undertaker Ko Yeong-geun. Sang-deok, who needs money for his daughter's wedding, agrees after his fee is doubled.

The grave is on a remote mountain near the border with North Korea. Sang-deok senses it is a terrible place. As Hwa-rim performs a ritual to calm the spirit, the coffin is dug up, but a worker accidentally kills a snake with a human head, a bad omen. The coffin is stored overnight at a hospital, where a worker opens it, releasing the grandfather's spirit. It kills members of the Park family before Sang-deok cremates the body, saving the baby.

Months later, Sang-deok returns to the site and finds a second, hidden grave beneath the first, with a coffin buried standing upright. The group learns that the monk who had chosen the grandfather's grave was really a Japanese shaman. When the standing coffin is opened, a giant spirit of a Japanese samurai, a demon-like oni, breaks free and attacks, briefly possessing Bong-gil.

The group discovers that during colonial rule, Japan was believed to have driven iron stakes into Korea's land to weaken its spirit. The grandfather was a pro-Japanese collaborator, and his grave was placed on top to hide and guard the stake. The samurai spirit is itself the iron stake, buried in Korea's "spine".

Using the logic of the five elements, Sang-deok realises the spirit is metal and fire, which water and wood can defeat. He fights it at night, stabbing it with a wooden pickaxe soaked in his own blood, and destroys it. He is badly hurt but survives. Months later, the group gathers happily at his daughter's wedding.

What was in the second coffin? A standing coffin holding the spirit of a Japanese samurai general, an oni-like demon placed there by a Japanese shaman during the colonial era.

What is the iron stake? A popular Korean belief holds that Imperial Japan drove iron stakes into the country's mountains to cut its energy and weaken the nation. In the film, the samurai spirit is this stake, buried in Korea's "spine".

Why was the grandfather buried on top? He was a collaborator with the Japanese. His grave was placed above the stake to hide and protect it, which also cursed his own family.

How does Sang-deok defeat the spirit? Using the five elements, he reasons that the metal and fire spirit can be beaten with wood and water. He stabs it with a wooden pickaxe soaked in his own blood, which counts as water.

What does the ending mean? Removing the stake heals the land and lifts the curse. The film is also a symbolic act of digging up and removing the wounds of colonial rule. The final wedding scene shows the characters finally at peace.