[HanCinema's News] The Fate of the Animals of "Exhuma" Remains Unknown

While "Exhuma" has been popular in large part for its supernatural trappings, the occult horror film had many performers of the natural type. Specifically, animals. Chickens get their heads chopped off, and a dog on a short leash meets an unfortunate end. A big point is made of one ritual requiring the death of five pigs. "Exhuma" is quite consistent in treating these various animals as property, rather than as life innately deserving of protection.

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Of course, such a portrayal is perfectly true to life. And indeed, anyone who eats chicken meat or pig meat is hardly in any position to complain about the ethics of such animals being used for entertainment purposes. But the South Korean entertainment industry is still reeling from the cruel treatment of a horse on "The King of Tears, Lee Bang Won" some two years ago. Subsequently, the humane animal treatment organization KARA sent seven points of complaint to Showbox.

As of March 12th, KARA received no response, although on April 1st they claimed that Showbox had apologized for the late reply and promised to work with KARA to verify that animals on set had been treated humanely. Many shots of "Exhuma" feature silverfish out of water. A demonic presence in "Exhuma" feeds on silverfish, and the apparent torture of these animals underlines a dark, moody backdrop of terror in the night as the characters confront the malicious spirit.

In the United States, the American Humane Association vets animal treatment in films, with a notice of "no animals were harmed" confirming that proper guidelines were followed. Regulations in South Korea prevent the cruel treatment of animals on film, or in any other context, but there's little in the way of official enforcement. The horse incident in "The King of Tears, Lee Bang Won" led to legal penalties in large part because the incident was so egregious an independent report was made.

KARA, with a non-English website at media.kara.org, hopes to have a similarly vetted "no animals were harmed" confirmation to appear in the credits of South Korean films. With many details about animals in "Exhuma" already fairly confirmable, such as when and where "Exhuma" acquired the silverfish for use in the film, further confirmation about humane shooting conditions may well be perfectly achievable. "Exhuma" has earned 11,261,882 admissions at the South Korean box office.

Written by William Schwartz