Is The Wailing Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 7 out of 10. It's a slow village mystery with a lot of dread, and it runs 156 minutes.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
7 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
High
Expect to spend a few days wondering who in your life you ought to trust.
DOG
Dog: not fine
not fine, and it is a hard scene to sit through.
Ruling: Watch it in daylight with company, because it runs 156 minutes and gives you very little relief.
The Wailing runs 156 minutes and starts when a stranger arrives in a small mountain village in South Korea. Soon after, people there start turning on their families, and a local police officer has to work out why.
The premise, briefly
A stranger arrives in a mountain village in South Korea, a strange illness starts turning villagers violent, and a local police officer tries to find out why before it reaches his daughter.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Jong-goo leaves before Moo-myeong's trap is finished, and his possessed daughter Hyo-jin kills his wife and mother-in-law and then attacks him. Jong-goo dies, Hyo-jin is left sitting in a trance, and the stranger shows himself as a red-eyed demon.
The scene you're dreading
Near the end, Jong-goo goes home before the rooster crows a third time and finds that Hyo-jin, possessed, has killed his wife and his wife's mother. She then goes after him.
The dog
The dog dies in a brutal way: it is killed with a pickaxe, suffers for a while, and is found hanging the next day. Other animals die too.
The Wailing has jump scares but most of the fear is dread, and the confusing ending is not easier to take for knowing the plot.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
The shrine has a shoe
A Japanese stranger turns up in Gokseong, a small mountain village in South Korea, and an infection follows that makes villagers violent enough to murder their families. The daughter of Officer Jong-goo, Hyo-jin, catches it. He meets Moo-myeong, a young woman who tells him the stranger is an evil spirit. A hunter says he saw the stranger eating a dead deer with glowing red eyes. After more violent deaths, Jong-goo recruits Yang I-sam, a deacon who speaks Japanese. They search the stranger's house and find a shrine with photographs and belongings from the dead villagers, including one of Hyo-jin's shoes.
Hyo-jin keeps getting worse. Jong-goo orders the stranger to leave, and soon the family finds a dead goat hanging at their gate. Hyo-jin kills a neighbor with a knife. Il-gwang, a shaman, tells them the stranger is a demon and starts a ritual meant to curse him to death. Jong-goo halts it midway and takes Hyo-jin to the hospital. The following day, Jong-goo and his group hunt the stranger down, but a victim's corpse rises and attacks them, and the stranger escapes. They eventually kill him, and Hyo-jin gets better.
Everyone is certain and nobody agrees
Il-gwang runs into Moo-myeong and vomits blood. His ritual has failed, so he tries to leave town in fear, but a cloud of insects blocks him. He phones Jong-goo and says Moo-myeong is the real demon, and that the stranger was a shaman who was after her. Yang I-sam, for his part, learns his uncle has murdered his family, and Jong-goo returns home to find Hyo-jin gone. Searching for her, he meets Moo-myeong, who tells him Hyo-jin is possessed by the stranger, who is draining her life. She says Hyo-jin is alive, has just come back, and will kill his family, and that she has already laid a trap for the demon. Jong-goo only has to stay put until the rooster's third crow. He tells her he isn't sure he believes her, and the shaman calls to warn him not to fall for Moo-myeong.
The rooster does not wait
While Jong-goo waits with Moo-myeong, Yang I-sam goes back to the stranger's house carrying a sickle and finds the stranger alive in a cave. Jong-goo spots that Moo-myeong is wearing belongings of the victims and sees Hyo-jin's hairpin on the ground. He decides this proves she is behind the infection and leaves for home before the rooster has crowed a third time. This is the scene people dread, near the end of the movie: Hyo-jin has killed his wife and her mother, and then she attacks him. Meanwhile the stranger takes picture after picture of Yang I-sam and then shows his true form, a red-eyed demon with stigmata. Il-gwang arrives with a camera, finds the dead family and photographs them, then fetches a box from his car and drops it. Inside are pictures of other families and other victims of the demon. As Jong-goo dies, he remembers good times with his daughter.
The ending, explained
Jong-goo dies in his own home, after Hyo-jin kills his wife and mother-in-law and then attacks him. Hyo-jin is left sitting in a trance. The stranger drops his disguise and appears as a red-eyed demon with stigmata, and Il-gwang photographs the dead family before spilling a box of pictures of other families and other victims. Yang I-sam's fate is not shown. Jong-goo left Moo-myeong's side before the third crow of the rooster.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, and it is a hard scene to sit through.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Wailing scary?
Yes, The Wailing is a 7 out of 10. It runs 156 minutes of dread with some jump scares, a lot of blood and an ending that leaves people unsure who to believe, and it tends to last a few days.
How does The Wailing end?
Jong-goo's possessed daughter Hyo-jin kills his wife and mother-in-law and attacks him, and he dies. The stranger shows his real form as a red-eyed demon with stigmata.
Does the dog die in The Wailing?
Yes, the dog dies in The Wailing. It is killed with a pickaxe, suffers for a while, and is found hanging the next day. Other animals die too.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Wailing?
No. The Wailing has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is the stranger in The Wailing?
The movie gives conflicting answers. Moo-myeong calls him an evil spirit, Il-gwang first calls him a demon and later says he was a shaman trying to kill Moo-myeong, and near the end he shows a red-eyed demon form with stigmata.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Wailing is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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