ATTACK THE K-BLOCK
HOPE (15)
Director: Na Hong-Jin
Screenplay: Na Hong-Jin
Starring: Hwang Jun-Min, Zo In-Sung, Hoyeon
Running time: 160 minutes
Cinema
Review: David Stephens
Surprises and misdirection can be a good thing in horror. It’s not so much the twist endings we’re referring to, but more the way you think you’re watching a certain type of story and then… you’re not. Think of how films like Barbarian, Martyrs, and The Cabin in the Woods pulled the proverbial rug out from under your feet, but in a good, creative way that made them better and gave them more depth. But this doesn’t always work. According to online reports (good ol’ Reddit!), we have a feeling that a lot of the unsuspecting viewers of Digger are going to be mightily pissed off when they see it. IYKYK. All of which (sort of) brings us to Hope, a South Korean science fiction monster film which has been written, directed, and co-produced by Na Hong-Jin, best known for classic K-Horror films The Chaser and The Wailing. Hope had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in May 2026, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and received an interesting reception. It’s also been widely reported as the most expensive Korean feature film ever produced, with a budget estimated at being close to 100 billion Won (about £55m or $73m). The marketing for it has been a bit weird (on Western shores anyway), with most posters just showing cops running or shooting (with a suggestion of a gaping maw in the corner). Whereas early trailers showed you glimpses of the creatures, these seemed to be excised from the later versions. Anyway, you’d be hard-pressed to give an exact synopsis until you’ve actually seen it. And luckily, we have, despite a limited release, which is mostly Arthouse-based, it seems. Hope for a good film? We’ll see about that.
It’s the 1980s (although we’re never specifically told this), which is partly for the usual reason being to eliminate the immediate spoilsport effect of fast communication that mobile phones allow. But as we’re in South Korea, it also allows for references to the political climate, which emphasises a sense of isolation, as Hope Harbour is situated near the DMZ, with the threat of minefields and Northern spies being the main concern before the kimchi hits the fan. It starts with the discovery of a massacred cow on a country road near the aforementioned sleepy village. It looks like it’s the victim of a bear or tiger, and so the self-important local Police chief (Hwang Jung-min as Ko Bum-Seok… stop laughing at the back!) starts to summon some of the local hunters and townsfolk to track down the culprit. But before you can say “Boy! That escalated quickly!”, Bum-Seok discovers that the village is already under attack by something ferocious. Something which has literally stormed through buildings, left dozens of dead bodies in its wake, and is resisting the bullets that pepper its move at every corner. After some misadventures, Bum-Seok sights the beast and is unprepared for what he finds. Meanwhile, in the forest, his cousin (Zo In-sung as Ko Sung-ki) is also tracking something and is equally unprepared for what he encounters, which is just as strange and deadly as what is attacking the village.
The first act of Hope is awesome. As the police chief (nicely played as a jumpy idiot with undeserved authority by Jung-min) tracks the ‘monster’, it stays one step ahead for a short while, with a deserted village, smashed houses, and pulverised bodies littered behind, and its appearance unknown. It’s a brilliant play on the monster movie formula, and extremely tense, although this is occasionally interrupted by Bum-Seok ballsing things up at times. It bodes well for the rest of the narrative. However, after a satisfying slow-burn, the ‘monster’ is revealed and things change a bit. Welcome to a surreal experience that is part Predator and part Avatar, with a chunk of Alien and a dash of Venom. All wrapped up in a sci-fi caper with endless chase sequences and indestructible characters that just won’t quit. It’s a tale of highs and lows, epic slo-mo sequences, iffy CGI creatures, and non-endings. It’s basically two genre-related narratives pressed together, where we’re (mostly) aware of only one POV and, as a result, you’ll probably come away buzzing over several excellent sequences but ultimately disappointed with the outcome. We’ll explain further, but we won’t spoil.
Firstly, when Hope operates as a pure ‘monster’ movie, it provides some excellent sequences. Akin to a smaller (but just as vicious) version of Godzilla Minus One, the moments where Bum-Seok tracks the creature and is pursued in return hold some of the best no-holds-barred creature violence for ages. The ‘monster’ swings corpses at victims (which both explode in a welter of blood), throws vehicles at puny humans, and (in one of the best understated scenes) embeds a person in a wall behind a door that’s been kicked out. All splendid stuff. Later scenes have a ‘monster’ chase a character on horseback, allowing for a jaw-dropping stunt sequence, straight out of an early Jackie Chan film. And then there are other epic moments of slaughter and gunplay, accompanied by a lively action-movie soundtrack that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s this pace and bravura action elements that really sing in the film. It makes the bulk of the 2 hrs 40 mins running time just fly by and is a hard-edged pleasure for fans of otherworldly creature features.
To blunt some of the hardcore violence and (intentionally) emphasise what a screw-up humanity generally is when compared to the ‘monster’, there is an offbeat (and frankly weird) sense of deadpan humour and a surreal tone to some of the key sequences. One key witness to a monster sighting spends more time talking about his pooping routine than he does the creature he sees. Bum-Seok himself is a caricature of a regional cop, twitchy around guns and even accidentally shooting bystanders (something which happens more than once and is oddly downplayed). He talks a big game and swaggers in front of the villagers but is mostly ineffective, especially when compared to his female rookie (Jung Ho-Yeon as Im Sung-ae), who gains access to grenade launchers… and is a far better shot. The intention here is to show how incompetent and hostile people are when confronted with the unknown, something which only really hits home when Bum-Seok experiences some unexpected empathy with a creature.
As for the ‘monsters’ themselves, it’s a mixed bag of brilliant and not-quite-there. The CGI is… variable in quality. In some sequences it is chilling, believable, and downright scary, such as the huge human-like hand reaching from the darkness and pulling a bleeding victim away. The first glimpses are effective, but seeing as we are now so used to seeing CGI critters with believable heft and physicality in movies, the SFX feel almost old-school here. It’s a problem when they’re moving at superhuman speed (which happens A LOT), in that it just doesn’t look realistic. When you compare the FX-heavy scenes to something like Godzilla Minus One or the recent The End of Oak Street, it doesn’t look convincing. However, it does work in context for the most part, mostly because some scenes (and the narrative itself) are so damned fast-paced. The latter half of the film is a concentration of chase sequences that are often breathless in context and don’t give you a chance to question what is happening. Which is probably just as well, as some characters survive fatal injuries (or not… depending on the plot requirements). And the ‘monsters’ themselves are absolute bullet-sponges, shrugging off anything less than a powerful explosion. It’s pretty crazy and slips close to the MCU antics that led to the so-called superhero fatigue.
If you’ve cast an eye over the casting and wondered where Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander fit into things, that’s pretty bizarre as well. Suffice it to say that it leads to non-conformist cameos, and you have to wonder if they knew exactly what type of film they were contributing to. The main problem with Hope is mostly down to the final act, following a bravura action sequence (and a dumb character twist), where you are presented with a dramatic swerve that reveals a whole new set of storylines and subplots. It feels like someone has edited the ending of another film onto the one you’ve been watching, making the whole experience feel somewhat unsatisfying. This is partially intentional on Hong-Jin’s part, who wants to make it a trilogy, with the next film explaining more about the events. However, he’s unlikely to get around to making a sequel for many years, and the financial takings of this film may not lead to the studio greenlighting it anyway. This means that there are at least two storylines that ‘end’ on a note of hope (presumably more of a reason for that title than just the location), but we may not get to see the outcome.
So, here’s the thing (and the reason for a slightly muted star rating). This would have been a superlative and straightforward ‘monster movie’, with a few tweaks and a tightened running time. There are some impressive action sequences and some cool designs, as well as some great ideas. A ‘monster’ can morph into a dog-like creature built for speed and savagery, before turning into something else altogether. The scenes of carnage in the village are brilliantly mounted and very realistic in their siege-like tone and positively chilling in others. Blood and gore are very much not avoided, and there’s a pleasing kaiju-like quality about the proceedings that deserves comparison with recent Godzilla films. All that is great, and we could have been looking at a clear successor to The Host (the 2006 Korean monster movie). But the later plot swerves, a muddled ending and a lack of a definitive conclusion will affect your experience whether you like it or not (and you may get a kick out of it). For that reason, we loved parts of it but were disappointed by it as a whole. Still, it is different to a lot of stuff out there at the moment, and that trilogy may happen… eventually. We can only hope.
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