The amount of lore packed into the short runtime of Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning is dizzying. An adaptation of the first chapter of the first volume of Toemarok by Lee Woo-hyeok, the Korean animated horror resembles more a compendium of video game cut-scenes than it does an actual movie. At the expense of legitimate characterization, writers Lee Dong-ha and Park Seong-hee have opted for an overwhelming amount of flashbacks and a barrage of exposition.

It is a taxing affair. To be sure, the film does contain a series of crackling action scenes and startling animated sequences. Produced by the animation studio LOCUS Corporation, Exorcism Chronicles was created through a painstaking, six-year process of rendering, with natural Korean landscapes and ancient buildings as inspiration. Many of the fights – drowning though they are in convoluted story – are visually resplendent.

Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning Is Like Watching A Video Game Without The Pleasure Of Playing

Exorcism Chronicles is a singularly difficult film to summarize, though it is definitely worth noting that, despite its тιтle, the film contains very little in the way of exorcism. In an early scene, Father Park (Choi Han) expels the biblical arch-demon Astaroth from a priest, but the rest of the film more closely resembles Demon Slayer or Dragonball Z (which definitely makes one wish even more this was the start of a television series and not a standalone film). Characters float in and out, each of them possessing their own unique power, many of which seem derived from natural elements.

Park is a burly former doctor-turned-exorcist with a mᴀssive scar running up his neck to his perfectly chiseled chin. His mᴀssive frame belies a tender heart, and as he wearily wanders from possession to possession, he chugs holy water from a flask emblazoned with a cross (the receptacle seems like a bait-and-switch solely employed to trick the audience into thinking Park is a drunk). One day, he is approached by a former classmate, Guardian Jang (Hong Seung-hyo), who also left the medical field to become a monk at the mysterious and highly secretive Haedong Order. The two haven’t seen each other in twenty years, but Jang desperately pleads with Park to guard after an especially gifted child, Joon-hoo (Jung Yoo-jung).

On the way up the rolling green hills of the Korean countryside, Jang explains to Park that Master Seo (Hwang Chang-yung) has become drunk with power, openly eliciting the help of demonic forces to consolidate his place atop the Order. In nine days time, Seo plans to strike his final stake in the heart of those that would deny his throne through a Grand Ritual. Some kind of sacrifice is required. A bunch of chaotic fights ensue.

Much mention is made in the film of a legend that is frankly difficult to parse, but suffice it to say that it predicts the coming of three visitors. Seo, entwined as he is with dark spirits, believes those to be Kali, Asura and Lord Shiva, three Hindu deities that will grant him eternal strength. Jang, meanwhile, is sure it is the more earthly visitation of three additional guardians: Eulryeon of The Shamanists, Maga from India, and Byeokgang of the Mudang Denomination. Oh, and then there’s a shaggy-haired teenager named Lee Hyun-am (Nam Doh-hyeong) who shoots red flames from his perpetually bleeding and badly bandaged arm that has broken into the Order and wants revenge for his ᴅᴇᴀᴅ sister.

If that all sounds confusing, it’s because it very much is, and director Kim Dong-chul has an almost impossible time sorting it all out. The film is hampered from the start by its desire to be the first in a line of epic films, which means that it feels like an extended first episode as a matter of course. The film does have a ʙuттoned-up ending, but the filmmakers have used so much of their 85-minute real estate in establishing a mythology that is berating in its too much-ness.

Considering that the film already has the distinct tactility of a fan edit on YouTube, it might actually benefit from leaning into that and removing any of its wasted breath. The action scenes are fun, but nothing else works. If this really is “the beginning,” the rest had best contain the middle and, mercifully, the end.