The Kumiho family circus in town -- and with it, apparently, a mysterious murderer. The members of motherless family aren’t helping their case with their strange remarks about humans and their initial performances, cavalcades of dismemberment and torrents of blood which terrify the local kids. Pretty soon, a dour, downbeat cop is on the tail of the plucky, bumbling Kumihos. Or rather, tails -- “kumiho” is the word for the fox spirits of Korean mythology, and this clan from Nam Mountain near Seoul, temporarily disguised as people thanks to a magic spell, must eat human livers during a brief, once-in-a-millennium lunar eclipse to shed their foxy nature and assume permanent human form. When the sleazy reprobate on the run from mobsters stumbles into their eerie household, he soon finds himself a little too enthusiastically involved in their scheming after human flesh—and involved with the sexy elder-sister fox spirit as well!
Practical Effects
Gloriously grotesque fox transformation effects
Score
Sudden musical numbers about cannibalism
Direction
Balancing family comedy with body horror
Director
Lee Hyung-gon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kumiho folklore traditionally depicts malevolent fox spirits who eat human livers to become human; this film bizarrely reimagines them as a bumbling nuclear family sitcom.
Ha Jung-woo (Son fox) would become one of Korea's biggest stars; this early role finds him dancing in fox makeup and murdering people.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
KR
