The Divine Fury is a 2019 action horror film about a MMA fighter who teams up with a priest to stop demonic forces from wreaking havoc.
The Divine Fury is one of those genre features that sounds like a great idea when you hear the premise for the first time. Unfortunately, the execution is pretty underwhelming. Directed by Kim Joo-hwan, who has made Midnight Runners, it’s one of those flicks that is completely wasted potential as it doesn’t do anything intriguing with its characters and story. A Korean action horror film that deals with possession should not be such a disappointing mess like this movie.
The story is about Yong-hu (Park Seo-jun) who decides to eventually become an MMA fighter after his parents have tragically passed away. He even abandons his faith in God and claims it’s best to believe in himself instead. As he’s been busy fighting in the octagon ring his whole life, he also starts having stigmata in his hand, and he’s trying to figure out how he has gotten it in the first place. He then meets up with an old priest named Father Ahn (Ahn Sung-ki) to hopefully heal his bloody wound, and he now has to stop demonic threats from wreaking havoc and taking over people’s souls.
The Divine Fury has a lot of flaws, but let’s first talk about the pros. It’s well shot, and it showcases some mesmerizing cinematography in some scenes. Whenever there are action sequences happening on screen, they’re actually pretty entertaining to watch. They’re spectacularly choreographed, and it’s an aspect that allows the film to somewhat stand out from most action flicks in terms of its unique fight scenes. The filmmakers do a good job in making the demons look cool, and it feels like a stylish graphic novel adaptation at times. Even the lighting is impressive, which effectively changes the setting between night and day.
While the movie does have some enjoyment in it, it still has a lot of problems that unfortunately compromise the experience. The main flaw with the film is that its pacing is all over the place. Some scenes keep dragging the flow of the narrative, and it eventually becomes exhausting to sit through, especially in the first and second act. The third act is admittedly pretty thrilling, but it’s too little, too late at that point. Also, the acting performances are very dull, and their line delivery doesn’t always seem expressive and natural. All the characters are generic clichés that you have seen plenty of times before in other features that deal with exorcism. As a whole, the script just squanders an interesting premise into something really bland, unfocused and forgettable.
If you’re looking for a fun action horror flick, this is not one of them. The Divine Fury is a movie that will ultimately leave you disappointed the more you think about it. It’s nothing special, because the execution doesn’t even try to elevate its cool concept. While it does have a decent third act and impressive fight sequences, those elements aren’t enough to save the film. What we have instead is an uninspired and convoluted mixed bag that genre fans will probably not have a good time with…