Society Reviews

“An MMA fighter helps an exorcist fight evil.”

Sure, I’ll bite.

These days, I can’t fault anyone who takes an original idea and runs with it even if it sounds absurd from the pitch. So when the trailer for a film tells the story of a martial arts champion who gains divine powers to fight with a powerful evil force was released…I couldn’t pass this up.

The Divine Fury is a story of a superstar MMA fighter named Yong-hoo. When Yong-hoo was a child, his father was murdered in a traffic stop by a couple who looked to be possessed by demons. Because God didn’t save his father, Hoo grew up resenting God and becomes irrationally angry at the sign of a cross. One day, however, he comes across an exorcist and discovers the fight between good and evil is much closer to him than he realizes.

Despite the setup of a superstar MMA fighter taking on the forces of evil, his fighting background doesn’t come in to play for much of the film which is a letdown. The Divine Fury focuses more on exorcisms and this film has some intense scenes of visual terror. The conflict of good and evil is done well with Woo Do-hwan as the dark bishop. The dark bishop using the power of black magic to wreak havoc on the city of Seoul creates a formidable opponent for our protagonists. With that said, the film plays up the action half of its action-horror genre more than the horror. Utilizing their main character’s MMA background more could have sold this film in line with other films like Blade and Underworld if that was the direction they were going with.

The Divine Fury is still a good watch despite the need for some narrative trimming. A little sharping would have made this a much better film but it is anything but a waste for what you get.

3.5/5

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