The Witch: Subversion (2018) - Movie Review

What do you get when the brightest mind in South Korean cinema decides to make a supernatural action thriller that blends the best parts of Asian horror and action flicks?

A badass breath of fresh air, that’s what.

Let’s discuss.

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion or The Witch: Subversion, as US streamers have shortened it to, is a Korean Action/Horror/Scifi/Thriller brought to us by writer / director Park Hoon-Jung. If that name isn't familiar to you, you need to change that immediately. Stop reading this review and watch 2010’s I Saw The Devil. It’s one of my favorite movies all time and one of the best examples of why South Korean Cinema’s quality has surpassed Hollywood by leaps and bounds. In Korean films, you never know what’s going to happen. The stories are nuanced, the characters complex, and the direction sharp and unrelenting. No one is safe, no one is special, and nothing is as it seems. The Witch is no different.

The film focuses on Koo Ja Yoon, a teenage girl coming of age in a small Korean town. Her mother has begun her descent into dementia and as a result, her family is struggling. They’re behind on their bills and barely scraping by. So she auditions for a primetime talent show on television. A show broadcast all across the nation. The joy of her success in her audition is short lived though as strangers begin appearing in the town. Strangers who know more about Koo Ja than she knows about herself. Killers who want nothing more than decimate everything she loves. Will she be able to solve the mystery locked away in her childhood long repressed or will she be swallowed by the coming darkness? Find out in The Witch: Subversion.

This film is Witch Hunter Robin meets John Wick.

Witch Hunter Robin is one of my top 5 anime of all time. It’s a beautiful and brutal story of a young witch sanctioned by the government to hunt and kill other witches. It’s unique to many anime of its time period as it lacks the over the top animation or comedy and instead focuses on a very real world, with consequences to every action.

If you don’t know who John Wick is, I don’t know why or how you found my website.

The combination of a balls to wall action of John Wick with the somber, enigmatic atmosphere of Witch Hunter Robin shouldn’t work—but it does.

It works completely.

Mostly because the production of the film is unbelievable.

Every scene is a work of art. From the set dressing to lighting and costume design, the film is a flawless example of that clean, sharp South Korean aesthetic. It helps that the musical score and special effects are both deftly used to emphasize the strengths of the film.

Of course, none of this would matter without the fantastic performances by the cast that includes Kim Da-mi, Go Min-Si, Park Hee-Soon and Jo Min-Su. A real standout for me was the skillfully layered performance of Choi Woo-Shik.

The only negative thing I can say about the film is that it’s part 1. The story doesn’t end here.

Checkout this film currently streaming on Shudder and Freevee right now.