This horrifying wartime experience inspired this ultra-scary Korean film

Creating a monster

The creation of Alpha’s character is based on the director’s research on the experiences of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during World War II: “In particular, they sewed up eyelids, implanted cells from victims into other people’s bodies, performed lobotomies using an ice pick… quite a program.” After working on this documentation, I thought and asked myself: what if. This would happen if a person was subjected to such an experiment for a long time, what would happen to him after so much horror?

A mix of genres

The project Wolf Hunting is made in three parts: the film starts as an action thriller, then turns into a horror film with the creature, before finally becoming a sci-fi film.

It is the unity of the place (a wonderful ship) and the abundance of characters that allowed the director to achieve this mixture of genres while achieving a certain coherence: “As much as I like to mix genres, I also like the idea of ​​not having one or even just two main characters. I like having an ensemble cast and playing with the audience: certain characters appear, disappear, before reappearing, finally. Dies. Others survive. And whoever is first Dies is definitely not someone the audience would bet on.”

counter-employment

Actor Seo In-guk portrays the ultra-violent Jong-doo, an inmate distinguished by the tattoos that cover his body. The actor will find there a counter-usage role, one that has so far excelled in many dramas, especially romantic ones.

The director describes his performance: “He had already made a big impression on me thanks to his performance in Squad 38 (Task Force 38), and then we crossed paths. I saw and imagined something hyper-sexy and very masculine in him. The character is like that. But he’s never really played a real character before. ‘Bad Boy’ role, so I thought maybe it was a great opportunity for him to try something new as an actor.”

Man is a wolf to man

The director wanted to see with his film the well-known proverb “a man is a wolf for a man”. He divides his characters into three categories: those close to the condition of wolves, those who still want to cling to what remains of their humanity, and those who have none left.

He specifies: “Criminals are predators in search of prey, detectives are hunters in search of honor, and Alpha, the symbol of Japanese imperialism, is no longer human. He’s a wolf, he’s the ultimate predator. And I think that’s what the film is asking for. QUESTION: Is this World War II or our modern day? Society, man has always been and always will be a wolf to man. So how do we protect what remains human in each of us? It can be the first step to envision a future where man sees the creature in front of him as another human, not as a wolf.

A record amount of fake blood

Project Wolf Hunting is a particularly bloody film: 2.5 tons of fake blood was used on the set! “On set, we created blood pumping systems that we’ve never used before, and my intention was to make it as real and exaggerated, if not more, than what, say, Tarantino can offer… you know, blood. It just doesn’t flow. If you cut an artery, it will literally fall out. That’s what I wanted to portray and I’m happy with the result.”– says the director.

Using all this fake blood was not without logistical complications: “If a take is missed, then the whole set has to be cleaned and the actors replaced before we can do a new one. And because we were caught in the weather, it was necessary to limit the number of takes. Replays without the use of blood are possible and facilitated.”