The 8th Night

"A man, who was once an exorcist, suffers until he faces a demon that is freed. The night exists between real and unreal, their struggle to stop the resurrection of the demon has begun!"[4]

About two and half millennium ago (2,500 years), a monster crossed the bridge from hell to the human realm to create human suffering. Buddha ripped both the Red and Black eyes from the monster and locked them inside different Śarīra caskets. Before the Red-eye surrendered to Buddha, it ran away for 7-days by hiding inside human bodies. The Eyes were buried in the cliffs of the Far East and desert of the Far West. Buddha instructed his disciples to make sure they would never meet.

In the present, Professor Kim Joon-Cheol (Choi Jin-ho) sets out in the desert and finds a relic which is presumed to be one of the caskets. However, the scientific community declares his findings to be a fraud and is shunned by all. 14-years later Prof. Kim, now a bitter individual, is determined to prove the truth of his discovery by reuniting the Black and Red eyes. He then finds and removes an object from the casket and pores a vial of blood into it. The Red eye emerges.

In Gwangju, Abbott Ha-jung (Lee Eol), protector of the Black eye casket, realizes the Red eye has reawakened. He tells a young monk, Cheongseok (Nam Da-reum), the Red eye will find 7 stepping stones and if it reunites with the Black eye on the 8^th night then it will be unstoppable. They need to prevent this by removing any one of the stepping stones. Meanwhile in Chilgok, the Red-eye takes over a hunter and goes into a motel. The Abbott tells Cheongseok to find Seon-hwa (Park Kin-soo) and informs him of the monster there. In Chilgok, Detectives Kim Ho-Tae and Dong-jin investigate deaths at the motel where the hunters' body, now dried and decomposed, is found and cameras show a woman leaving the hotel. Later the hotel woman's body is found in a similar state.

Cheongseok finds Park Jin-soo (Lee Sung-min), now a construction worker. We then see a woman speak to a delivery person who recognizes her from a medication group. The Red-eye passes from the woman to the delivery person. Park and Cheongseok set out the find person whose the next stepping stone. Park goes to the crime scene where the woman's body (who passed onto the delivery person) is found, but stopped by Detective Kim, but Park runs away from them. Cheongseok meets Ae-run, a pretty young girl who brings him some food. Cheongseok then runs into a school girl and realizes the Red-eye is hidden in her. Detective Kim does a background check on Park and realizes he became a monk after his family was killed by a drunk woman. Detective Dong-jin connects all the bodies, all found in a dried and decomposed state starting with Prof. Kim who had started a meditation website for suicidal people. All the bodies were members of this website. One of the people in the picture is a female Shaman who is still alive.

Park tells Cheongseok to leave and tracks down the school girl and attempts to kill her with an axe. She runs to Detective Dong-jin and possesses him. Instead of killing Park he tells him to go to Bak-Sun (Gwangju) and that's where he will die. Cheongseok decides to return to his temple in Gwangju. Ae-run follows him.

The Red-eye, now in Dong-jin's body arrives in Gwangju and finds Monk Ha-jung and tells him he has failed spectacularly. Cheongseok and Ae-run also arrive. Park also arrives and finds Cheongsuk alone. Detective Kim speaks with the shaman and she tells him about meeting Ae-run. She was an abused child rescued by Prof. Kim and has groomed her to bewitch the last stepping stone, the virgin guardian. Ae-run is actually a ghost now. The Shaman tells Detective Kim that Prof. Kim brought them all together and took blood samples from each person to create the stepping stones. The Shaman tells the Detective to go to the mountain (Gwangju).

Cheongsoek now realizes that he's had the casket all along. Park sets a trap for the Red-eye using himself as bait. Believing that Red-eye will possess him because he is the guardian of the casket. Park writes a talisman in his blood in Cheongseok's clothing to protect him. The trap fails because Park is not the real guardian -- the last stepping stone is Cheongseok. Ae-run appears and removes Cheongseok's clothing with the talisman. The Red-eye (Dong-ji) tracks down Cheongseok and gets a hold of him. Park appears and attempts to stop the Red-eye but is shot by Kim. As Kim turns Dong-ji over he sees his body is dried and decomposed. Red-eye has now possessed Cheongseok and kills Kim.

Red-eye tells Park that Cheongseok is the son of the woman who killed his family. Red eye then opens the casket. Red-eye appears as a child to Park and tells him to take his life as revenge. Park is tempted but is unable to do so, but instead caresses Cheongsoek's face with his bloody hands. Red-eye mocks Park for being unable to end his anguish by taking revenge. He goes to strike Park with an axe. However, Red-eye is frozen because Park has written a talisman in blood on his face. Red-eye has to exit Cheongseok and go into Park. Cheongsoek (no longer possessed) is initially unable strike Park but eventually summons the strength to do so.

The movie ends with Cheongsoek in a desert. Ae-run appears with chains on her feet. They touch and her chains disappears.

• Lee Sung-min as Park Jin-soo, the guardian[5]
• Park Hae-joon as Kim Ho-tae, homicide detective[6]
• Kim Yoo-jung as Ae-ran, a girl with a secret[7]
• Nam Da-reum as Cheong-seok[8]
• Choi Jin-ho as Professor Kim Joon-cheol
• Lee Eol as Ha-jeong
• Kim Han-sol as delivery man
• Park Se-hyun as a high school girl

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.60/10. [16]

Sarah Musnicky, writing in Nightmarish Conjurings, rated it with 4.5/5 stars and wrote that the screenplay is 'incredibly thoughtful' as it kept the audience guessing. She opined, "The writing helps to elevate the story beyond a typical “save the day” scenario." Musnicky also praised the performances of the cast because in her opinion that really helped the development of characters. Praising the FX makeup and the VFX, she penned, "And its in that simplicity that I think the Makeup and VFX teams really shone." Concluding the review Musnicky expressed, "Altogether, The 8th Night is a strong contender for one of my favorite films of 2021."[17]

Johnny Loftus, writing for Decider, praised Nam Da-reum's performance. He opined that The 8th Night, was a well-made film which eschews 'big scares' and 'jump scenes' for a 'suitably creepy' juxtaposition of the supernatural and mundane. Ending his write-up, he wrote, "A different film might fling the door to Hell open with a little more flair, but The 8th Night still drives at its central conceit with subtle notes of character and spirit world mystery."[18]

For JumpCut Online, Nguyen Le said the film has "the style, the startles and the sight to certify deeper currents" despite an overly rapid pacing and average English subtitling work that can cause details to be lost. He ended his 3.5/5 review by saying this is a film "you should, at least once, give the time of day to."[19]

Writing for Culture Mix, Carla Hay opined that The 8th Night has innovative cinematography and visual effects making the film an above average horror film. Hay wrote that the film with solid plot overcame decoration over content scenes, and suspenseful and surprising twists made up for the film’s messy climax. Ending the review Hay said, "The 8th Night has enough captivating mystery and horror that viewers, confused or not, shouldn’t get easily bored from watching this movie."[20]

• The 8th Night at HanCinema
• The 8th Night at Daum (in Korean)
• The 8th Night at the Korean Movie Database
• The 8th Night at Naver (in Korean)
• The 8th Night on Netflix