Seire

Directed by Kang Park
Film Movement
2021
102 Minutes
South Korea
Korean
Horror, Asian
Not Rated
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In Korean folk traditions, "seire" is the twenty-one days after a baby is born in which they're uniquely vulnerable to bad luck, curses - even evil spirits. Many superstitions surround these first three weeks in a baby's life, and new mother Hae-mi carefully follows every one of them. Father Woo-jin is reluctantly willing to play along, but when he attends an ex-girlfriend's funeral, he unwittingly opens the door to to dark supernatural dangers. Plagued by terrible nightmares, the skeptical Woo-jin gradually begins to understand the seire custom, as he is forced to unravel the mystery of what is haunting him and his family in Kang Park's "chilling indie horror debut" (Screen Anarchy) heralding the arrival of a fresh new voice in Korean genre cinema.

Cast

  • Seo Hyun-woo
  • Sun-young Ryu
  • Eun-woo Shim
DVD Features

Discs: 1

  • Highest Rating
    "A first-time father experiences a bad case of the “baby blues” in Korean writer-director Park Kang’s engrossingly steely feature-length directorial debut Seire. Named after the three-week period during which, according to traditions, a newborn is especially vulnerable to misfortune, the film balances psychological probings and potentially supernatural elements in deliberately disorienting and accomplished fashion. "
    Neil Young, Screen Daily
  • Highest Rating
    "Superstition and fatherhood collide in Park Kang's crisply staged and chilling indie horror debut Seire.... Kang has a firm command of the tone of his tightly paced story.... [N]o matter how perceptive you think you may be as a viewer, the film's gleeful climax will be a welcome and wicked surprise."
    Pierce Conran, Screen Anarchy
  • Highest Rating
    "Dark and eerie in great form, Seire is a stunner."
    Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?
  • Highest Rating
    "Seire... offers a lot of oneiric weirdness, shocking gross-out effects, and some moments of genuine, pitch-black humor, all of which make it worth seeking out"
    Fred Barrett, In Review Online
  • Highest Rating
    "{A]s intriguing as it is unsettling. Seire is stunning. It’s atmospheric, compelling and really good at sustaining tension. "
    Claire Fulton, Loud and Clear
  • Highest Rating
    "Park Kang crafts a smart, spine-tingling ghost story that showcases how close we are to terror. "
    Tori Potenza, MovieJawn
  • Highest Rating
    "Seire does a great job of mixing two popular horror sub-genres with solid filmmaking and excellent acting."
    Stephen Rosenberg, Movieweb
  • Highest Rating
    "**** (Four stars) [A] slow burn of a film which disturbs and unsettles, recalling insomniac night and too-bright mornings, a familiar world where everything seems slightly askew. It teases viewers by raising relentless questions which it never fully answers, but is all the better for preserving that element of mystery. "
    Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film
  • Highest Rating
    "[H]ugely effective. Recommended for fans of “elevated” horror."
    J.B. Spins

Awards & Recognition

Winner
FIPRESCI Prize
Busan Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
New Flesh Competition for Best First Feature
Fantasia Int'l. Film Festival.
Official Selection
Telluride Horror Film Festival

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