It's not every day you get to see a movie like Chaws. First off, it's Korean, sort of a comedy / horror flick. We who enjoy the horror genre are used to comedy being added to the mix. I mean, half the time, the killer would never be able to slaughter half the cast of the movie before anyone finds out without the characters doing something stupid to make themselves vulnerable. So, we are used to seeing stupidity and bad decisions, and stretching it out to make it comical really doesn't surprise us. Also, this movie is two hours long, which is unusual for a horror movie, but it spends a lot of time on character development. Which, yes, does cut down a bit on the time the creature spends on-screen, but trust me. There's a lot of killing going on from the beginning.
Chaws is the story of a Seoul policeman who gets reassigned to a village police station. Used to dealing with drunk drivers and handing out traffic tickets, the policeman must uproot his dotty mother and pregnant wife and move out to the mountainous countryside, where everyone tells him he'll be watching tractors go by and fishing all day long. Unfortunately, the "crimeless village" he moves to, has a small problem. Or, make that a large problem. There's a wild boar on the loose. And it's acquired a taste for human flesh.
Now, I know what you are thinking. A wild boar? Come on now. You call that a monster movie? Yes. Yes, I do. There's a reason jungle cats do not attack wild boar or warthogs head-on. They will charge right at you, goring the shit out of you with their razor sharp tusks. And they are very hard to stop once they charge. And that's just the small ones. In the USA alone, wild pigs and boar populations are soaring. Hunters regularly kill 200 and 300 pounders, and there are rumors of bigger ones out there. Me, I'm a bit of a city boy. I was in a cow stampede once and I still have nightmares about it, and those were just cows. Without the horns. I can't even imagine what it'd be like to face down a 300 pound wild boar with razor sharp tusks, charging right at me. Chaws isn't even the first movie about a killer boar, so don't think it's a weird korean anomaly. "Razorback," an Australian flick about a killer boar, came out in 1984, and that one was pretty scary, too. Let's review what makes a wild boar a dangerous foe, shall we? Several hundred pounds of angry beast with rock-hard hooves, razor sharp tusks, a brain too small to realize when it's been hurt or given a mortal wound, a charging speed of maybe 30 miles an hour, and hide so thick it would take an armor-piercing round just to manage to get through the fur on the outside, let alone the thick slab of rock-hard fat underneath. So, yea. Definitely a good monster.
I don't know how good the actors were in this movie. It's Korean. They seemed to act a bit comically most of the time, but it was partially a comedy, so I think that was on purpose. Some elements seemed to be thrown in just for comedic effect, but they didn't seem to detract from the horror bits much at all since they didn't try to combine the two. Each comedic bit was dealt with, and then each horror episode was done, and then the movie moved on to the next bit. The special effects were maybe not the best that could have been done, but reasonably okay for your average horror movie. I didn't see any contradictions or things that didn't seem to make any sense given what I knew about the characters, so in that sense, the movie flowed along quite nicely. Each of the scary or horror aspects of the film seemed to be done quite well, even if I didn't find all the comedic bits funny, which is probably due to me not being Korean. Given the basic horror portions all tied together, I would say it was a decently good monster flick with a bit of comedy thrown in. My first thought after finishing the film was wondering if anyone I know would like to watch it again with me, but since my pool of friends is slim at best and none of them have an interest in horror, the answer was a resounding no. But, at least you get the idea that I would like to watch it again at some point, so it passes the rewatchability test.
All in all, pretty decent. Available on netflix. There was a glitch where the title simply did not show up in my instant queue for several days, but that was fixed. And by not show up, I mean that it listed that there was a movie there, and what sort of movie it was, and how many stars it was rated, but the title was invisible. Which was just weird, and the only time I've ever seen that. But hey, if you can find it, give it a watch. No nudity, so if you are looking for that, forget it, but lots of body parts, inept police officials, hairy beasts, shooting, explosions, chases through forested woodland, and way too many crazy moms to have to deal with.
In other news, I have a sunburn! Ow. I wish it wasn't so hard to get my recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D. Sigh. But, I live in the dim northeast. Got to get out and get my sunshine while I can, since it will probably snow next week. lol That's all for today. I have this strange urge for bacon for some reason. Weird.
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