Monster (2014): A Portrait of Madness and Murder
Directed by: Hwang In-ho
Written by: Hwang In-ho
Starring: Lee Min-ki, Kim Go-eun, Kim Roi-ha, Ahn Seo-hyun
Release Date: March 13, 2014 (South Korea)
Available on: Amazon Prime
I recently watched Monster (2014) on Amazon Prime, another fine example of South Korean cinema’s gleeful disdain for restraint. This is a film that plays with audience expectations, starting off as a cheerful comedy, then passing through grim thriller, before descending into outright horror. It also features one of the most unsettling villains I’ve seen—one who kills his victims, incinerates them, and turns their ashes into rather nice pots, treating the business with the detached professionalism of an artist at work. Naturally, I liked him immediately. I liked the way he took all his clothes off and scarified himself after every murder. I don’t think I’d do that if I turned serial killer, but it was one nice touch among many.
The film follows Bok-soon (Kim Go-eun), a simple-minded but fiercely protective young woman who sells vegetables from a roadside stall. She is childlike, awkward, and entirely ill-suited for survival in a world this cruel. When her younger sister falls victim to a serial killer, Bok-soon sets out on a revenge mission with nothing more than her wits and an almost suicidal determination.
The man she is hunting is Tae-soo (Lee Min-ki), a psychopath who has spent his life perfecting the art of murder. Raised in a household devoid of warmth, he has honed his craft with clinical precision. His method is both horrifying and bizarre—again, using their ashes to make pottery, as though he were sculpting rather than butchering. He can go from complete passivity to ruthless, blood-soaked murder without raising a sweat. It is an unsettling, almost ritualistic form of madness, and it makes him one of the more memorable villains in recent cinema.
His character, particularly in the film’s final act, reminded me of the Terminator—not just in his single-minded pursuit of his victims, but in his physical relentlessness. Even when seemingly defeated, he keeps going, pressing forward as if fuelled by something beyond human endurance. There is no grand ideology or convoluted motive behind his actions. He kills because he can, and because no one has ever stopped him before.
While Tae-soo himself is a monster, the film wisely does not pretend that he was created in a vacuum. His adoptive family is every bit as disturbing as he is. South Korean films have a history of showing family units as sources of trauma rather than comfort, and Monster continues that tradition. Tae-soo’s home life was an education in cruelty, a place where violence was the only language spoken. His “father” was a sadistic brute, his “mother” a sordid old hag.
This is another aspect in which Monster shines. Many horror films give us killers who are evil simply because the plot requires it. Monster, however, takes the time to establish why Tae-soo became what he is. His backstory is not an excuse, but it does add depth. We see glimpses of his childhood and the way he was shaped, and in those moments, the film almost dares us to pity him—before ding us why we shouldn’t.
Monster is an exercise in brutality, but it is also unexpectedly beautiful. The horror is matched by a certain elegance, particularly in the way the film contrasts Tae-soo’s detached professionalism with Bok-soon’s raw, unfiltered emotion. She is not a typical avenger. She is not particularly skilled or even particularly intelligent. But she is relentless, and in a film like this, relentlessness is its own kind of strength.
The final act is a masterpiece of tension, a slow and methodical descent into chaos, lightened by moments of grim comedy. By the end, as the bodies pile up and the blood soaks every surface, the audience is left with no easy answers—only a lingering sense of unease.
For those with a taste for psychological horror, Monster is well worth watching. It is unrelenting and unsettling. And as for Tae-soo—well, he would have made an excellent potter in another life.
