Revenant begins, as most horror stories do, with a death on a dark, stormy night. Folklore professor Gu Kang-mo (Jin Seon-kyu) is running from an unknown entity recognisable only by a head of wild, floating hair. A slip in vigilance costs him his life, setting off a chain of bloody events with his daughter Gu San-yeong (Twenty-Five Twenty-One’s Kim Tae-ri) in the dead centre.
Unbeknownst to San-yeong, the hair accessory her late father had bequeathed to her carries traces of a violent past, resulting in San-yeong being possessed by the same demonic entity that her father was running from. After people around San-yeong start dying indiscriminately, she has no choice but to reach out to cryptic Professor Yeom Hae-sang (Oh Jung-se), who can see ghosts and demons.
Yeom – who has his own bone to pick with the supernatural – reveals to her that the entity possessing San-yeong grows by fulfilling its host’s base desires before consuming them altogether. Now in a race against time, San-yeong and Hae-sang must get to the bottom of this terrifying mystery while also keeping Detective Lee Hong-sae (Hong Kyung) off their trail.
Having already proven her acting chops in hits like Mr. Sunshine and The Handmaiden, Kim Tae-ri expertly balances her role as a struggling youngster and a malicious, possibly centuries-old entity spectacularly. Contrasting the expressiveness of San-yeong’s character is Oh Jung-se’s Yeom Hae-sang – he is laser-focused, mysteriously understated, annoyingly persistent and just slightly unhinged.
Bringing a fresh dose of neutrality to these two extremes is Hong Kyung as Lee Hong-sae. This man just wants to go to work and get his promotion, but keeps getting entangled in weird cases thanks to his partner. Despite his very millennial sense of resignation, Hong-sae is quickly being set-up as the most human of this trio through subtle exchanges that prove he does care about something more than his bank account.
Horror aficionados who thrive on jump-scares and gore might be in for a disappointing run – or so it seems from the show’s first four episodes. Revenant is a slow burn in the purest sense of the word. Part of this approach can be attributed to the show’s attempt to build a layered, fuller definition of horror, with a focus on the psychological. Juxtaposed with the supernatural are the terrors that humans inflict upon each other, built through sub-plots featuring negligent, abusive parents or evil shamans who imprison and murder young girls. Real-life horror feeds its supernatural counterpart – even the entity possessing San-yeong acts up in particular when she’s experiencing “dark” thoughts.
The show also cleverly skirts the traps of explanations becoming expositions. Much of the source material comes from Korean folklore, but Revenant believes in showing rather than telling – a simple device that horror movies often underestimate. There are moments where information is all too conveniently placed, but one can forgive said transgressions simply because of the presentation.
The only drawback here is that, for a horror show, the pacing of Revenant is surprisingly languid. So far, we only have piecemeal information about the entity possessing San-yeong. Said demon’s bloodthirst aside, the creepiest thing it has done so far is carve out the eyes of a child’s doll with a knife for getting on its nerves. While we’re sure the pacing will pick up in the next few episodes, we’re currently left in the weird limbo of deciding to wait until things get good or bail while we’re ahead.
Revenant is available to stream on Disney+ in select regions