Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Svaha: The Sixth Finger’ on Netflix, a Creepy and Ambitious Korean Supernatural Whodunit

Netflix movie Svaha: The Sixth Finger boasts a title that falls out of your mouth like a bunch of broken teeth. Poetic, it ain’t — it’s more likely to trip you than seduce you while you navigate Netflix’s content salmagundi. But don’t be discouraged; horror fans may appreciate its ambitious commingling of unsettling atmospherics, a dense detective-thriller plot and lots of creepy supernatural whatnot.

SVAHA: THE SIXTH FINGER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: “The day I was born, goats wailed like crazy.” A teenage girl, Geum-hwa (Lee Jae-in) narrates the opening line of Svaha in voiceover, telling the story of her overly hairy and heavily clawed demonic twin sister, who chewed up Geum-hwa’s leg in the womb. Their mom died and their dad committed suicide. Geum-hwa now lives with her nutty, fundamentalist-Christian dog-merchant grandparents, and Little Miss Howls-and-Hisses-A-Lot exists behind a locked metal door in the pooch kennel. Grandma whips herself regularly. Geum-hwa slides a bowl of mush under the door for her sis. Good times.

Meanwhile, the eccentric Pastor Park (Lee Jung-Jae) heads the Far Eastern Religious Research Institute. He’s famous, and a little bit rich, for sniffing out and exposing bizarre cults. At best, he’s loosely Christian. He pulls on a thread tied to a group posing as a Buddhist sanctuary, but potentially linked to something far more sinister. Pastor Park’s increasingly convoluted investigation crosses paths with Chief Hwang (Jung Jin-young), who’s pursuing leads in the murder of a young girl.

The story tangles in a number of other characters: A local religious mystic who can tip cows with the power of ritualistic dance. A couple of Buddhist monks — one amusingly nicknamed “the Octopus” — who help Pastor Park research ancient woo-woo. A man who was born in 1899, and his caretaker, and the elephant in their barn. Two former juvenile-prison inmates convicted for murders, and haunted by the spirits of dead children. Some snakes, some rats, some goats and the occasional creature of indeterminate species. Did I mention the movie is set during Christmastime, so the grimness is extra bleak (and pointedly symbolic!) when contrasted with the joy of the season?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Svaha formula: Blend the supernatural whodunit of True Detective with the religious-cult-myth mumbo jumbo of The Da Vinci Code and the Bart’s-evil-twin plot of that one Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode; add a Constantine-type character and a director who wants to be Bong Joon-ho; then season with a mixture of eerie vibes from a Se7en ripoff and modern-virtuoso Korean horror a la The Burning.

Performance Worth Watching: Lee Jung-Jae gives Pastor Park a charmingly complicated blend of quasi-faith and hardcore skepticism. The character is clearly more shyster than believer, a slippery opportunist fueled by self-interest, fame and, maybe, preventing exploitation of vulnerable people by devious organizations. Pastor Park could be written with more clarity and depth, but Lee is nonetheless entertaining and nuanced in performance.

Memorable Dialogue: “The wise one. Grab the snake’s foot,” a character (who I won’t reveal) says late in the movie. Decontextualized, you’ll wonder if you’ve gone your whole life misunderstanding reptile anatomy. Contextualized, it almost makes sense — almost.

Single Best Shot: The camera circles around a room crawling with sinister demon-girls, and the shot lands on the sleeping man tormented by their presence. Was it dream or reality?

Sex and Skin: None, because it would imply the presence of joy in this movie.

Our Take: Director Jang Jae-hyun clearly wants to impress us with his eager artistic vision, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Svaha is thematically provocative and visually inspired, and Jang wants to stir up cogitation on spirituality and religion as much as he wants to disturb us. It’s easy to admire his work, and feel spellbound by his rigorously conceived imagery.

Yet the plot is cluttered with superfluous detail, muddying its intent — Jang struggles to balance the intimacy of a character-driven story with big, broad questions about the role of spirituality and myth in our lives. The movie also has enough characters to populate a prestige TV series, and Jang adds and drops them regularly. Its density isn’t an asset, at least on first watch; a second viewing may be revelatory, but I’m not sure if we’d be up to the task.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but with serious reservations. Enjoy the craft that goes into its grim, moody ambience, appreciate it for its lofty intentions, then file it under Ambitious Failure.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Svaha: The Sixth Finger on Netflix