A man, who was once an exorcist, suffers until he faces a demon that is freed. The night exists between real and unreal, their struggle to stop the resurrection of the demon has begun!
About two and half millennium ago, a monster roamed free that had planned to create eternal suffering. Unable to kill it, the Buddha ultimately stopped the monster by ripping out its eyes (one black, one red). The red eye, however, wasn't captured without a fight. It followed seven "stepping stones" i.e. humans that it used as a bridge to reach humanity, the last being the Virgin Shaman. When the Buddha was able to stop the red eye, he placed it along with the black one in a different ΕarΔ«ra casket. He buried one eye in the mountains of the Far East, and the other eye he buried in the deserts of the Far West, ensuring they would never reunite and rebirth the monster.
However, after a few centuries, a disgraced professor (Choi Jin-ho) vows to find and reawaken the monster's red eye, and prove the Buddish myth real. Monk Ha-jung (Lee Eol), the protector of one of the caskets, realizes the red eye has reawakened. He asks monk Chung-seok (Nam Da-reum) to seek Park Jin-soo (Lee Sung-min), a construction worker and banished monk who was born to stop the eyes' reunification. The two, along with Detective Kim Ho-tae (Park Hae-joon) who is working the case of the unusual corpses the red eye leaves in its wake, begin the hunt to find the Virgin Shaman, and stop the eye from entering her as the last stepping stone, and awakening the monster to cause havoc on the earth.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which categorizes reviews only as positive or negative, 63% of 8 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.60/10.
Roger Moore reviewing the film rated it with 1.5 out of 5 stars, and wrote that telling plot and not showing the horrifying attacks of monster took away the suspense from film. He praised the climax for its scenic effect, he opined, "And the effects [finale] can be chilling in that neck-cracking, beady-eyed grin sort of way."
Sarah Musnicky, writing in Nightmarish Conjurings, rated it with 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that the screenplay is 'incredibly thoughtful' as it kept the audience guessing. She opined, "The writing helps to elevate the story beyond a typical “save the day” scenario." Musnicky also praised the performances of the cast because in her opinion that really helped the development of characters. Praising the FX makeup and the VFX, she penned, "And its in that simplicity that I think the Makeup and VFX teams really shone." Concluding the review Musnicky expressed, "Altogether, The 8th Night is a strong contender for one of my favorite films of 2021."
Johnny Loftus, writing for Decider, praised Nam Da-reum's performance. He opined that The 8th Night, was a well-made film which may lacked in 'big scares' and 'jump scenes' still it was creepy. Ending his write-up, he wrote, "A different film might fling the door to Hell open with a little more flair, but The 8th Night still drives at its central conceit with subtle notes of character and spirit world mystery."
For JumpCut Online, Nguyen Le said the film has "the style, the startles and the sight to certify deeper currents" despite an overly rapid pacing and average English subtitling work that can cause details to be lost. He ended his 3.5 out of 5 review by saying this is a film "you should, at least once, give the time of day to."
Writing for Culture Mix, Carla Hay opined that The 8th Night has innovative cinematography and visual effects making the film an above average horror film. Hay wrote that the film with solid plot overcame decoration over content scenes, and suspenseful and surprising twists made up for the film’s messy climax. Ending the review Hay said, "The 8th Night has enough captivating mystery and horror that viewers, confused or not, shouldn’t get easily bored from watching this movie."
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