In Korean folk traditions, “seire” is the twenty-one days after a baby is born in which they’re uniquely vulnerable to bad luck, curses – even evil spirits. Many superstitions surround these first three weeks in a baby’s life, and the new mother Hae-mi carefully follows every one of them.
The horror and drama Seire (2021) tells the story of a father Woo-jin who is reluctantly willing to play along, but when he attends an ex-girlfriend’s funeral, he unwittingly opens the door to dark supernatural dangers. Plagued by terrible nightmares, the skeptical Woo-jin gradually begins to understand the seire custom, as he is forced to unravel the mystery of what is haunting him and his family.
This is the debut feature film of the writer and director Kang Park. Seo Hyun-woo, Sun-young Ryu, Eun-woo Shim, Eun Min Ko, and Woo-kum Kim for the main cast.
The movie had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize on October 10, 2021, and later had a festivals run including Zurich Film Festival, Paris Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival, and Five Flavours Asian Film Festival. Film Movement has the distribution rights and has scheduled it for a digital release on June 16, 2023.
About the movie, Pierce Conran of Screen Anarchy stated that “Superstition and fatherhood collide in Park Kang‘s crisply staged and chilling indie horror debut […] Kang has a firm command of the tone of his tightly paced story[…] No matter how perceptive you think you may be as a viewer, the film’s gleeful climax will be a welcome and wicked surprise“.
Watch the official trailer for Seire (2021).
