South Korean animation film “Exorcism Chronicle” is a modest genre piece simply doing some warm-up exercise for whatever may follow next. Probably because I remember too well the first entry of the short story series it is based on, there is not much surprise for me on the whole, so I just focused on its mood and style during my viewing, but I was only mildly entertained without caring that much about the story and characters.

Phlegmatically observing the story and characters, I became a bit nostalgic about Lee Woo-hyuk’s short story series “Exorcism Chronicles”, which was one of numerous pulpy stuffs I eagerly absorbed when I was young and wild during the 1990s. Like those trashy novels by V.C. Andrews or Sidney Sheldon, they were mostly fun, but I have never felt any desire to revisit the series. To be frank with you, the series is not exactly the worst thing I read during that time, but I think I could have focused on reading something more meaningful instead, such as the works of Henry James or Virginia Woolf.

Anyway, the movie feels like your average TV pilot episode in terms of narrative. First, we are introduced to the principal characters of the series one by one, and the rest of the story is about how they come to gather via their little supernatural adventure, which is involved with a certain clandestine cult hidden somewhere in the rural mountain region of South Korea.

As shown from the opening scene, the leader of the cult is your typical megalomaniac who is also quite dangerous for his growing evil superpower, and this certainly disturbs not only his followers but also several elders who have each own superpower. It is quite apparent to them that the leader is already beyond the point of no return, and they eventually decide to stop the leader before the day when the leader will perform a big ritual which may give him much more power than before.

Besides stopping the leader by any means necessary, their another main goal is protecting a boy who has been training under them and the leader since he was very young. This little boy, Joon-hoo (voiced by Jung Yoo-jung), has already shown considerable potential as learning and practicing a lot under the guidance of the leader and the elders, and the elders must find someone willing to protect the boy at least for a while.

That person in question is Priest Park (voiced by Choi Han), who, like many other priest heroes in occult horror films, knows a lot about how to fight against those evil entities out there. I must tell you that he looks a bit too bulky compared to what I imagined during my reading, and now I cannot help but think of that Jack Black comedy film about a priest moonlighting as a luchador to earn money for the orphanage where he works. Considering his tough confrontation with a very powerful demon early in the story, I guess muscle and stamina are the basic requirement in the battle against demons besides all those necessary holy stuffs.

Anyway, Priest Park is approached by one of the elders who happens to be an old schoolmate of his. Despite some initial reluctance, he agrees to help his old friend as much as possible, so they soon go together to the secret temple of the cult, while not knowing at all that there is someone else on the same path from the start.

That person in question is a young man named Hyeon-am (Nam Doh-hyeong), who is looking for that secret temple for a rather unspecified reason. Via several flashback scenes, it is revealed that this lad, who is also incidentally his own superpower (His right hand seems to be cursed but powerful like that of the hero of “Princess Mononoke” (1997), by the way), has tried to find a way to revenge someone very close to him, and he is quite determined to do anything for that, even though that may lead to his death.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the story eventually culminates to a big battle between good and evil, and director Kim Dong-cheol and his crew members naturally put a lot of efforts onto the screen. The result looks a bit blunt and shabby compared to American or Japanese animation films in terms of detail and style, but the overall result is fairly competent with enough sense of fun and thrill, and that compensates for the rather thin characterization and predictable plot to some degree.

As far as I remember, the screenplay by Lee Dong-ha is mostly faithful to the first short story of the series, but I wish it could take some more time for fleshing out its main characters more. Sure, we are supposed to get to know them more if there really come the following sequels, but the movie does not go further than doling out their respective little background stories bit by bit, and we are only left with the promise on their next adventure to watch in the end.

In conclusion, “Exorcism Chronicle: The Beginning” deserves some attention considering the saddening rarity of South Korean animation feature films during last 25 years, but it does not have enough personality to distinguish itself more. After Lee’s short story series came out, I and South Korean audiences went through a bunch of similar genre products including the 1998 film which is based on Lee’s short story series, and we recently had “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman” (2023) and “Exhuma” (2024). Compared to them, “Exorcism Chronicle: The Beginning” looks like a late guest, and I hesitate to recommend it for now, but I sincerely hope that there will be some improvement in whatever may come next.