‘The Second Child’ review: Lim Soo-jung stars in atmospheric South Korean horror-tinged mystery

Dir/scr: Yu Eun-jeong. South Korea. 2025. 101mins

A psychologist and single mom learns the shameful fact behind the demise of her older daughter and her evident reappearance three years later – and the way each these occasions may have a probably deadly affect on her youthful baby. Author-director Yu Euon-jeong’s second characteristic, The Second Little one is a partially-realised horror thriller that’s often wealthy on environment however skinny on thematic coherence and real frights.

 Carried alongside by sturdy turns from its forged

Intentionally paced and virtually freed from gory violence, The Second Little one sees Yu – certainly one of South Korea’s few feminine filmmakers – enjoying with style expectation the way in which she did in her debut, 2018’s Ghost Stroll, to barely extra typical however equally uneven ends. Comparisons could possibly be drawn with the likes of The Slender Man, The Babadook and Kim Jee-won’s A Story Of Two Sisters; significantly as Sisters star Lim Soo-jung seems right here (and in addition serves as a producer). That affiliation with Kim’s Korean wave hit, and the final reputation of style movies, ought to take The Second Little one a good approach, significantly with specialty festivals, and a common launch in Asia is a robust risk.

Simply as Ghost Stroll put a artistic spin on style and was underpinned by a revelatory efficiency from Han Hae-in, the much less cryptic and extra accessible The Second Little one can be carried alongside by sturdy turns from its forged; significantly Park So-yi (Change) and Yu Na (Darkish Nuns) because the movie’s central sisters. Su-ryeon (Yu Na) and Su-an (Park) are shut as sisters go, significantly given their age hole: Su-ryeon is in center faculty and Su-an simply 10 years outdated. Sneaking into her room one night time, Su-an asks Su-ryeon to inform her the story of the Shadow, a creature residing within the underworld who yearns to be corporeal. The catch is that he wants two youngsters to assist him, so one may give up their physique.

The story appears to come back true that very same night time, culminating in Su-an making an attempt – and failing – to stop Su-ryeon from falling to her demise from the roof. When Su-an wakes from a coma three years later (she was discovered on the bottom beside her sister) mum Geum-ok (Lim) is relieved, but additionally pressured about find out how to break the information of Su-ryeon’s demise.

Su-an, who nonetheless thinks she’s 10, readjusts to life as finest she will be able to, catching up on her training at cram faculties when she meets Jae-in (Yu once more) – a lifeless ringer for Su-ryeon. They strike up a tenuous friendship though, for her half, Su-an is satisfied that Jae-in will deliver her sister again so long as she will be able to lure her to the home the place Su-ryeon died.

Spoilers apart, Considered one of The Second Little one’s modest pleasures comes from watching the women and Geum-ok slowly unravel the thriller of a household curse (which is barely opaque) that goes again a number of generations and applies solely to girls. Yu takes her time constructing out the puzzle on the coronary heart of the story and lets Park and Yu Na actually stay within the characters; it’s as a lot a narrative of childhood friendship as anything.

Finally, nevertheless, The Second Little one solely flirts with its horror trappings, as a substitute rising as a slow-burning meditation on ideas of parenting, inherited trauma and different lives. The three feminine characters often marvel if the existence of the underworld means there are higher choices for them, and the story’s solely males are antagonists. But whereas cinematographer Lee Ju-hwan crafts some putting pictures, the concepts with which Yu is wrestling by no means really crystallise.