10 Best Horror Movie Performances Nobody Talks About
6. Kwak Do-Wan As Jong-goo - The Wailing
You think you know horror tropes like exorcisms, mysterious diseases, and isolated locations. Watch The Wailing, and it will show you a completely new and deeply disturbing take on them. It is much more than that, telling a complex tale of loneliness, grief, and obsession.
At the heart of the horrific happenings is Jong-Goo, a policeman and father who is desperately uncover the truth whilst protecting his family. It is another fairly well trodden trope within horror cinema, but actor Kwak Do-Wan reels the audience in with an understated performance that slowly builds as the hysteria around him does.
He acts as you or I would in this situation, demonstrating his flaws as much as his attempts at heroism. Jong-goo is just an ordinary man trying to do the right thing and help people, and Do-Wan makes his struggle so bloody believable. It’s a very clever, subtle performance that taps into wider human issues of prejudice and paranoia without ever losing sight of the deeply personal elements that make up the character as a whole.
For a supernatural horror film, the humanity brought by Kwak Do-Wan grounds it in an uncomfortably close reality.