2. Bedevilled
Forget J-horror, Korea is where it's at when it comes to Asian horror films and Bedevilled is one of the best of the bunch. With the like s of Oldboy and Lady Vengeance firmly cementing Koreans as the masters of revenge cinema it was never going to be long before we saw this melt into their already impressive horror repertoire. A great revenge movie will have you rooting for the victim turned avenger no matter how grisly their spree becomes and Bedevilled sets this up perfectly. Bok Nam; an award winning role for Yeong-Hie Seo, has spent her entire life on Moo Do island; a desolate sun scorched place where the handful of men, each one of them more reprehensible than the last are treated like gods by 'their' women. Married to an abusive, possible paedophilic beast, her life has been nothing but toil, regularly raped by her brother in law and treated as a workhorse by the elder women on the island her only glimmer of hope comes in the form of a visit from Hae Won; a childhood friend who used to visit her grandfather there every summer. During her stay on Moo Do she experiences first hand the depravity in which the Bok-Nam is forced to live, when her husband begins to act suspiciously around their daughter Bok Nam practically begs her to help her flee. Hae Won is given countless opportunities to help her but instead turns the other cheek. A violent outburst and the ensuing cover-up from all of the islanders is the last straw for Bok-Nam and years of repressed anger come to the surface in a bloody spree that sees her slicing through the island and eventually pursuing Hae-Won back to the city. Bedevilled will leave you questioning whether bystanders to abuse become guilty by default as you will certainly be cheering Bok Nam on as she cuts through every person that could have helped her but selfishly neglected to. Blood comes by the bucket-load in a final act that is merciless and unrelenting.