Evil has a nasty habit of finding away…

As we begin to look back on the Halcyon Days of streaming with more and more reasons to go outside upon us, we’re here to ever faithfully remind you that you haven’t broken Netflix QUITE YET…

Launching globally on the service today; The 8^th Night is a fun and thrilling horror ride from a first time director that combines some of the mood and atmosphere that is so common with Korean horror alongside elements of classic Hollywood horror and adventure tropes.

This film tells the tale of a life-or-death battle spanning eight days to prevent the breaking of the seal that restrains “That Which Must Not Awaken.” Once awakened, it can cross the stepping stones to wreak havoc on this world.

While it’s variations on themes that we’ve seen before, there’s a lot to like here in The 8^th Night as it has a real crystal clear sense of the execution that it needs in order to tell a story like this in an effective and sufficiently creepy fashion, blending action, genuine character moments and some good old fashion fucked up visual effects to really sell the entire package.

With first time writer/director Kim Tae-yeung at the helm we get a picture that has a firm sense of not only scope, but in timing and execution as it dives us heads first into the narrative with a real veteran storyteller ease.

From minute one we understand that this film is less about us being freaked out or scared but more about taking us on a ride that has some freaky and scary moments inside of it.  In many ways this almost feels like an 80’s movie; think of something like The Golden Child meets The Sixth Sense but just more psychologically intense and gory, it’s got that kind of vibe to it.

When we aren’t getting freaky with the action and the hunt for this force of evil that is set on make the world a hell on earth, Kim Tae-yeung is giving us some genuine character moments with the players in this film.  Instead of being props in a horror film, he lets us actually care about these people and get invested with the journey that they are all on and it comes to life thanks to some very strong leads.

North American audiences will know Lee Sung-min who plays our wayward axe-wielding monk from films like Secret Sunshine & The Good, The Bad & The Weird (ironically he plays a character named ‘Chef’  in both films) carries the action exceptionally well from top to bottom.  As he follows the stepping stones that this millennia old spirit is following to find their way back we feel the dread but embrace the adventure aspect of it all at the same time.  Nam De-reum is great beside him in the prototypical sidekick role as Park Hae-Joon and Kim Dong-yeong are cops following along this trail of death and destruction not truly realizing what they are getting into.

The truly positive thing to pull out of a film like The 8^th Night is its scope and execution, which is something we rarely see from a first time director because while the story has a lot of familiar elements to it, he’s keeping us engaged with some really good performances and a visual sense of style that doesn’t betray the kind of story that it’s trying to depict on screen.