ANI-MOVIES, *Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning

Long before K-Pop Demon Hunters, Korea had a totally different collective of demon slayers. Toemarok started out as a book in 1994 by Lee Woo-hyeok which later went on to become a live-action movie titled The Soul Guardians, a hit manhwa (Korean manga), and recently a Webtoon series. In 2024, a full-length animated prequel was made which translated into English as Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning which sounds like it's the opening chapter of a movie franchise although there haven't been any plans for a follow-up sequel as of yet. Locus Animation Studios produced this CGI feature with a style that most American fans will identify as being similar to Arcane, but it's not totally up to the same level as some modern-day anime films. The movie took over six years to complete and was entirely animated in Korea, plus the studio created it without using any AI during its production.

Father Wood is a Christian priest in Korea that was excommunicated for performing exorcisms, and he is asked by an old friend-turned-monk to help protect the young Jun-hoo who is a young prodigy that has been trained in all the magics of Esoteric Buddhism. The head of the Buddhist order is planning on sacrificing Jun-hoo to claim his powers and become a god by making a pact with demonic forces. While this is going on, teenager Hyun-am is on a journey to increase his spiritual powers and get revenge on a monster that killed his sister, and his path has crossed with the battle against the possessed Buddhist leader. In the end, all three heroes are the only survivors of the encounter with a post-credit scene revealing a fourth member to their team who is an exorcist in her own right.

Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning does take a while assembling the main characters that the original book and comics are based on, so a good portion of other characters get brutally murdered. The film is an ambitious blend of action and horror with visceral sequences and truly eerie shocks. This was animated by some of the same team behind Red Shoe And The Seven Dwarfs, so it's good to see they can go from making a Shreck-influenced fairy tale parody to a dark supernatural fantasy that would make even hardcore horror hounds flinch.