I saw The Devil

Jang Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) works as a school bus driver by day but at night has a thing for occasionally stalking, abducting and killing young women. One night his victim is Jang Joo-yun, daughter to the local Police chief and fiancée to NIS agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun).

The Police have been maintaining a list of suspects for these murders but have been unable to narrow it down and Joo-yun's grieving father passes this to Soo-hyun who vows bloody revenge.

CW: torture, mutilation, rape, bloody violence generally

This is the revenge thriller dialled up to 11 with blood and gore more fitting for inclusion in a horror movie. In fact the middle section is almost like it takes a strange diversion into hillbilly horror.

It toys briefly with the idea that vigilante justice is wrong then discards it, most of the female characters are just on screen for Kyung-chul to menace and occasionally kill and the tone swings about a lot. It was far too long and I sort of felt dirty from watching it.

It does have things to recommend it, the performances are excellent, Choi Min-sik is chilling and the horrible violence has purpose much like it does in Kill List which I rewatched recently, rather than being there just for shock value.

Kind of a modern very well made video nasty 8/10. I'm not sure I can recommend it but it is made with skill and vision. Just maybe not a vision I want to see often. It makes me want to look up the other films of Kim Jee-woon though.