This intense debut fresh out of South Korea from writer and director Kim Jae-hoon brings us a thrilling, colorful, and bloody tale of body swapping mayhem in Devils. We open to a group of smiling fiends painting a dead woman while dismembering her and videotaping it. Two police officers approach the scene, one slightly ahead of his partner, attracting attention. When the man’s partner Jae-hwan (Oh Dae-hwan) arrives late, though, the officer is already mortally wounded, leaving our officer calling for help as credits open. We discover in the morgue this loss isn’t just of a partner, but his brother-in-law, leading him to swear he’d do anything to catch the killer. With four names in hand, the police department is closing in on a ring of serial killers that publish their killings to a snuff forum. There are eight posted videos, monitored over the dark web, but the police fear there are more unposted films and wonder what the true body count could be. Then the phone rings in the office, an apparent tip regarding the killer, sending the entire force into action and prompting Jae-hwan to offer caution to his new partner, Min-seong (Jae-ho Jang). They arrive to another abandoned, brightly painted location with a dismembered woman awaiting them when the lights begin to strobe: a distraction.
A high-speed car chase ensues, with Jae-hwan in hot pursuit, maneuvering the killer’s vehicle off of the main road. Somehow taking the crash easily, the chase continues on foot where the officers are ambushed in the woods, leaving Jae-hwan to run down the killer, falling out of sight. As night descends, Min-seong can’t find where the suspect went down, leading to the force blocking off the area and dividing into search parties. Soon, we see one month has passed; even with grids and search dogs there is still no trace, and amidst the search, more victims are piling up. Receiving a message to call the search off, as the killings have continued, it’s clear their resources have been tied up.
After wrapping up the search and recruiting new teams, the captain takes has a cigarette outside when an SUV comes screaming down the street and crashes nearby. Inside are the unconscious bodies of Jae-hwan, handcuffed on the passenger side, and the killer, Jin-hyeok (Jang Dong-yoon) in the driver’s seat. Awaking in a hospital, we hear Jae-hwan’s thoughts, but find him handcuffed and residing in the body of the killer, now in a full-blown panic and soon sedated. In another room, however, Jin-hyeok is quietly waking up in his new body, and seems to find it a convenient fit. With some reported memory loss, but no visible brain damage, it appears the wrong man is about to be sent back into the world with no one the wiser.
Beginning with a sorrowful death, this tragedy turns into a two-faced revenge thriller with an innocent man trying to convince the world around him that appearances aren’t always what they seem. Lighting and camera work do wonders at creating blacklight abattoirs and red-bathed torture chambers, to gray and green muted police offices and hospital rooms, all shot with a sense of urgency and intimacy as violence and secrets are contemplated. The pace alters between the slow burn of the unraveling mystery, and the ramped-up scenes of brutality or police involvement that keep the necessary tension alive in this thrilling, horror-action mashup. Compared to the likes of Face/Off and Oldboy, I think perhaps the film Americans would most recently associate this with is the 2020 Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton body swapping picture, Freaky.
Jang Dong-yoon and Oh Dae-whan play both their characters convincingly, switching attitudes from the passionate, high-strung cop to the apathetic, dead eyed murderer, with both performers delivering the right amount of energy in their respective tricky scenario. Jang Dong-yoon does an especially impressive job working both the criminals in his circle and trying to convince a very open, eager, and innocent Min-seong of his knowledge and his identity. Seeing the killer nesting with the unsuspecting members of Jae-hwan’s family and watching the officer slowly infiltrate and use his new façade to extract information are taut exchanges that can keep you on edge and makes you keen to discover a secret you’re waiting to be unveiled. Practical effects and makeup work well from the smallest facial wounds, to a brutal beat down with a pipe, to total or partial dismemberment (sometimes with gardening clippers); fight scenes, deaths and a generally bloody exchange make this a delightfully gory and action-packed watch. The method by which they catch the ring of criminals may make you tilt your head, but flashbacks and a shocking ending make this a treacherous road to follow, with plenty of surprises and some misdirection.
With mountains of style and talent, the secrets of this film and its characters will cut through you like a hatchet, so long as you can handle some of the intentional pacing leading to a stunning climax that will leave your mind wandering. Now streaming on Screambox, catch the electrifying body swapping feature Devils at your leisure.