Once in a while it’s nice to be surprised.
It’s nice to see something you have read about but never got around to seeing and to be blown away.
Thus is the case for THE MEDIUM, a film I had read was good when it was a Shudder exclusive but which I had never sat down to watch because of its run time – two-and-a-half hours is a lot for a horror film.
What I found was not just a really good movie but a faux-doc that really brings the creeps.
One other interesting thing to note before I get into the review is that one of the really great things about watching international films is to see how they see horror. We are so familiar with American horror, and sometimes Brit horror, that being able to see how other parts of the world tell scary stories is always fascinating and gives a new perspective of what we are all afraid of.
THE MEDIUM is a faux-documentary focusing on a woman who claims to be the host of a powerful female deity. With this deity inside her, the woman has become a healer for the local townspeople. As we learn her story and how she came to have this power. As her story unfolds we meet other members of her family, among them, her niece, who begins to display signs that something is wrong with her. As the girl acts out, displays aggressive behavior, and is caught doing strange things, the aunt, the medium, realizes that something may have come to inhabit her. While at first it seems as if the goddess that inhabits the aunt may have chosen the niece as her next host, the aunt believes something else is afoot and that something far darker has taken up residence inside the girl and they must get rid of it before it’s too late.
Phew.
Where this movie goes is something else, just as the journey it takes to get there.
This is a film about legacy, faith, and revenge, and none of it is pretty.
The movie has an incredible performance by the young woman who portrays the niece, and the story unveils itself very slowly, but in a way that heightens the tension. You really do have to settle in for the long haul though, and need to be patient. This is another difference between American horror films and international films – international films, specifically Asian films, are in no hurry to rush to the end. They want to ratchet the tension up, up, up until things explode.
The documentary aspect of things serve to really set the film up and let us become part of the terror that unfolds. There were moments where I shook my head at how the documentary filmmakers didn’t get involved in things that were happening, but at that point you are either all in or you aren’t. There is some atmospheric music added at moments, which also breaks with the rules of the sub-genre but I suppose you can just tell yourself someone found the footage and put it all together and scored it.
I suppose?
Overall, it’s a very chilling, well made film, with some amazing setpieces and some great scares. As things come to a conclusion it pushes the boundaries of believability – in the structure of the film – but again, if you are in, you are all in. It all makes sense in the context of what we’ve been told and seen and it all just works. It goes to very dark places, very, very dark places, and even a jaded geek like me was a little surprised.
If you are a fan of possession films or found-footage style films you cannot miss it. It many ways it feels like a riff on THE EXORCIST but dialed up to 11, if you can believe that.
Track it down! (As of this writing it’s on Tubi).
4 out of 5
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