International Premiere | In Competition
South Korea, 2025, 114’, Korean
Directed by: Kwon Hyuk-jae
Screenplay: Kim Woo-jin
Cinematography (color): Choi Chan-min
Editing: Shin Min-kyung
Production Design: Cho Hwa-sung, Park Gyu-bin
Music: Kim Tae-seong
Producers: Yoon Eung-han, Lee Eugene, Oh Hyo-jin
Cast: Song Hye-kyo (Sister Yunia), Jeon Yeo-been (Sister Michaela), Lee Jin-wook (Father Paolo), Mun Woo-jin (Hee-jun), Kim Kuk-hee (Hyowon), Huh Joon-ho (Father Andrea)
Date of First Release in Territory: January 24th, 2025
At the time when Jang Jae-hyun’s directorial debut The Priests premiered in 2015, the very idea of a Korean occult movie featuring exorcist priests and young victims possessed by demons was a bit unexpected. Ten years later, thanks to a string of similarly-themed films – not to mention the success of Director Jang’s own Exhuma – Korean occult is in the midst of its heyday. Dark Nuns is billed as a sequel to The Priests, and its story builds off of the earlier work, although we follow a completely different set of characters in a new setting. Most notably, instead of priests, the protagonists of this new film are nuns.
Sister Yunia is not a typical nun – she smokes cigarettes, and likes to use coarse language. Even more unusually, she has been trained in exorcism, which is usually only taught to male priests. But she has a particular affinity for the art. As the film opens, her skills are desperately needed: a young boy has been possessed by something very dark, and nobody has been able to help him. But the head priest in charge of the hospital where the boy stays does not believe in demons or possession, insisting that the only thing that can help the boy is psychiatric treatment. Yunia does what she can to intervene, but her efforts are thwarted, until she takes notice of a younger nun serving under the head priest. Sister Michaela is soft-spoken, and when Yunia tells her she can sense that she is spiritually gifted, Michaela recoils as if in disgust. But Yunia knows that she will only be able to expel the demon with Michaela’s help.
Dark Nuns is the third feature film by director Kwon Hyuk-jae, and his first occult movie. He embraces much of the conventional imagery we associate with the genre, but also brings elements of shamanism into the story. The percussive clamor of Korean shamanic rites combined with the prayers and shouts of Catholic exorcism make for a dramatic scene in the film’s final act. The role of Sister Yunia is taken by Song Hye-kyo, one of the undisputed top stars in Korea who returns to the big screen after a run on television that included the mega-hit Descendants of the Sun and the 2022 Netflix series The Glory. Earlier in her career, Song was cast almost exclusively in romantic roles, but in recent years she has excelled at portraying darker, tougher characters. The sharp edge to Sister Yunia’s personality makes her a fun character to watch as she rails against the prejudice and naiveté of those around her. The role of Michaela is filled by Jeon Yeo-been, whose prodigious talent was demonstrated in her early independent films, and who has now been fully embraced by the mainstream film industry.
Ultimately, the fact that these two characters are such outsiders, so overlooked and underestimated by others, lends a certain poignancy to their desperate efforts to save this stricken young boy. Dark Nuns may not forge new ground in the occult genre, but its memorable characters and striking imagery stand out.
Kwon Hyuk-jae
Kwon Hyuk-jae began his career as an assistant director to Ryoo Seung-wan on the films Arahan (2004), The City of Violence (2006) and Dachimawa Lee (2008), the last of which he also co-wrote. In 2010 Ryoo produced Kwon’s debut feature Troubleshooter, a crime film starring Sul Kyung-gu. Kwon went on to shoot the drama Count in 2020 for CJ Entertainment, though its release was delayed a couple years by the pandemic. Dark Nuns is his third feature.
FILMOGRAPHY
2010 – Troubleshooter
2023 – Count
2025 – Dark Nuns