Exhuma Ending Explained

 
Exhuma Poster

South Korean horror-thriller Exhuma, filmed by Jae-hyun Jang, is a novel combination of past facts and legends with instances of local traditional rites and rituals to bring forth a chilling tale. The film offers an incomplete but vibrant and immersive experience of intergenerational trauma, spiritual homeostasis, and the consequences of colonization. Although its complex allusions to Korean Feng Shui, the Japanese colonial past, and the supernatural genre may baffle others, a greater appreciation of its subtextual allusions adds another dimension to the film.

The Plot Unfolds

Out of desperation for a cure for his congenitally blind son's enigmatic illness, Park Ji-yong hires shaman Hwarim and her friend Bong-gil for help. They find a familial curse linked to Ji-yong's great-grandfather which occurs below the surface and the latter's grave is a starting point for the narrative. The hallowed burial ground atop a mountain embraced by foxes is a microcosm of tradition versus tragedy. In Korean Feng Shui, foxes symbolize disharmony, which is associated with the origin of the spiritual troubles related to the tomb.

A still from Exhuma

Sang-Seok, a geomancer, on the job to remove the curse, finds hidden depths of history and spirituality. Ji-yong's great-great-grandfather's spirit is miserable, [a] vindictive spirit looking to wreak vengeance upon his family for having interred him in the cursed ground. His pain is inseparable from the reality of being interred at a site of energy inversion, an imperial stratum of African origin to fight against Korean spiritualism.

Grandfather Park’s Wrath and the Family’s Secret

Park was a traitor who colluded with Japanese colonizers during their occupation of Korea (1910–1945). His stained history, impinging on the earth at the base of the mountain 38th Parallel explains the moral decay that haunts his descendants.

If the absurdity is not yet unbearable, in a sarcophagus that hasn't been touched by the ages, at Park's grave lies an unconscious demonic samurai, the Anima. This malevolent entity, created by Gisune—a Japanese Onmyoji or spiritualist—represents an iron stake metaphorically "piercing" Korea’s spiritual core. Azo's genesis makes participants confront the entangled history of coloniality, betrayal, and spiritual disequilibration.

The Role of Feng Shui and Mythology

Feng Shui principles form the backbone of Exhuma’s narrative. The rituals of Sang-deok and Hwarim are a function of the five elements (water, fire, earth, wood, and metal) in harmony. If a grave digger kills a snake—from Japanese folklore Nure Onna—it unbalances it, thereby releasing the Anima. The snake's death is symbolic of a tenuous alliance between spiritual worlds and what ensues due to human interference.

A still from Exhuma

The Climactic Battle

The strength of the Anima, linked to fire and metal, is mitigated with swathed wood—a tool that blends water and wood. The Sang-deok's ancestral heritage are brought on the doorstep as his blood, a token of ancestral Korea's chance at redemption, conquers the Anima. In fact not only does this deed sever the curse but also it is fully rebuilding spiritual equilibrium and, as such, it is achieving the victory against the colonial yoke.

Themes and Final Reflection

On occasion, spiritual battlefields are skillfully fought no less than battlefields on earth.