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James Marsh

2.5/5 stars
A pair of mismatched nuns battle the forces of evil, and the Catholic Church itself, in Kwon Hyeok-jae’s film Dark Nuns.
An official spin-off of the 2015 supernatural thriller The Priests, which starred Gang Dong-won and Kim Yun-seok, Dark Nuns features Song Hye-kyo and Jeon Yeo-been as habit-wearing heroines who join forces to attempt a dangerous exorcism.
The success of The Priests and last year’s shamanistic thriller Exhuma, both from director Jang Jae-hyun, has seen a resurgence in the popularity of horror films based around religion, which was further amplified by Na Hong-jin’s recent efforts The Wailing and The Medium.


Clerical horror is not a uniquely Korean phenomenon, with Hollywood offerings The First Omen, Immaculate, and The Pope’s Exorcist doing their part to bolster the enduring appeal of this faith-based subgenre, which first came to prominence more than 50 years ago with the likes of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.
In Dark Nuns, Song plays the headstrong though terminally ill Sister Giunia, who goes against papal doctrine by performing an exorcism despite not being an ordained priest.

Her efforts fail and the patient, Hee-joon (Moon Woo-jin), remains in critical condition. Meanwhile Giunia attracts the ire not only of her superiors, who refuse to believe the boy cannot be treated medically, but also of the demonic manifestation lurking within Hee-joon.
At the hospital, Giunia meets Sister Michela (Jeon), a novice nun and student of attending doctor Father Paolo (Lee Jin-uk).
At first Michela strongly rejects Giunia’s beliefs, until it is revealed she harbours secrets of her own. Michela is haunted by terrifying visions, which she attempts to control by mastering tarot cards.
With Hee-joon’s condition worsening the nuns are thrown together, and their search for a cure takes them to a shamanist priest (Kim Gook-hee), before a splinter faction of Rosicrucian clergy present a controversial, dangerous and unsanctioned solution.
The female-fronted drama sees Giunia and Michela do battle with institutional sexism in addition to centuries of patriarchal oversight and a procession of earthly and otherworldly obstacles already in their way.

Song and Jeon prove compelling heroines in a film that is otherwise disappointingly pedestrian.
Kwok does little to advance the increasingly familiar formula of cross-wielding emissaries bellowing incantations at contorted, bedridden vessels of evil, and in the end Dark Nuns feels like a genre retreating into old habits.
The only thing that might entice the congregation – sorry, audience – back for more is a coda which teases a teaming up of priests and nuns.
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Song Hye-kyo as Sister Giunia in a still from Dark Nuns.

Song Hye-kyo as Sister Giunia in a still from Dark Nuns (category TBC; Korean). Jeon Yeo-been co-stars, while Kwon Hyeok-jae directs.

Moon Woo-jin as Hee-joon in a still from Dark Nuns.

Jeon Yeo-been as Sister Michela in a still from Dark Nuns.

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Two nuns resort to extreme measures, including exorcism, to save the life of a possessed boy, and in the process defy their church superiors


Two nuns resort to extreme measures, including exorcism, to save the life of a possessed boy, and in the process defy their church superiors.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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Review | Dark Nuns movie review: Song Hye-kyo, Jeon Yeo-been in Korean exorcism horror

Two nuns resort to extreme measures, including exorcism, to save the life of a possessed boy, and in the process defy their church superiors