8th Night Plot Synopsis
8th Night is the latest Korean horror movie on Netflix. At the heart of it is a malevolent spirit bent on destroying the world. This spirit comes in the form of a red eye (more on that later!) To stop its threat, a group of strangers come together to stop this massacre.
Monks Cheong-Seok and Seon-Hwa (now his real name is Park Jin-Su) are in the driver's seat. Alongside him and parallel to his story is Detective Ho-Tae. He eventually follows a breadcrumb trail of corpses that converges to a large peak at Buk-San.
8th night screen 1
What is the origin of the soul?
2,500 years ago, a monster began to open the gate that closed the human world to Hell in order to torment people. Buddha appeared before this monster and removed his Red and Black Eyes, the source of his power.
Unfortunately, the eyes managed to escape the Buddha's hand and flew away. Black Eye was caught quite hastily and locked inside a sarira coffin.
Red Eye managed to escape, hiding in different bodies and running for seven straight nights, on the eighth night Red Eye was tricked. Realizing that he could never escape the Buddha, the Eye voluntarily entered the sarira casket and waited.
The Buddha said to his nameless disciples, "You must make sure that they never meet again, that is your destiny."
How to free Red Eye?
In 2005, Professor Kim locates Red Eye and manages to get him out of the desert. With that, he sets the monster free again. He stays dead to meet his black eye, making him unstoppable. To do this, the eye has a variety of different people connected to each other by stairs. This is a nod to the original story where the eye jumps between different hosts.
What's the connection between the group?
As we soon learn, the link for the eye to switch to the various victims is Professor Kim. He founded a Buddhist meditation website exclusively for suicidal people.
Professor Kim took blood samples from each member, which in turn put together a trail of bodies. The smell of the door and the vials of blood are associated with this, and the demon makes its next victim.
How are Cheong-seok and Jin-Su going to stop the ghost?
After his attempts to kill the last victim fail, Park Jin-Su follows Cheong-Seok back to Buk-San, where he also finds a second coffin.
Given that Sarira must have a coffin guard, their plan involves Jin-Su serving as bait to trap Jin-Su's soul inside a barrier protected by Buddhist scriptures and chants.
But she soon realizes that Cheong-seok is the protector of the coffins, not her. Spirit uses Ae-Ran to lure Cheong-Seok to Buk-San. Only, Ae-Ran is actually a ghost and is working with a demon to bring the maiden (Cheong-Seok) to her intended destination.
Was the demon stopped before it unleashed Hell on earth?
In the woods, detective Ho-Tae appears and throws a big wrench in the works. Jin (now in possession of Dong-Jin's body) finds an opportune moment to strike when Ho-Tae hits Park Jin-Su.
Jin possesses Cheong-Seok and quickly throws the detective up and impales him against a tree. Bleeding and clinging to life, Park presents himself as the victim.
He deftly marks Cheong-seok's face with his Buddhist scripture, allowing it to enter his body, expelling the demon with his blood-soaked hands.
Recovered in the process, Cheong-Seok uses a magic ax to hit Jin-Soo between the right eyes. By doing this, it prevents the demon from changing bodies that prevent danger.
8th night screen 4
How does the 8th Night end?
With the danger gone and Cheong-Seok alone, the film moves forward with an epilogue of sorts. Cheong-Seok carries the talisman from where it came into the desert and watches as it sinks back into the sand below. Ae-Ran then appears and takes her hand, untying her ankle chains.
This obvious connection is due to Jin-Sun's resentment towards Cheong-Seok. Later, the demon reveals that Cheong-Seok's Mother actually killed Park's family. This explains his bad feelings towards the boy throughout the film. Opening the chains in this way seems to be a metaphor for how this weight has been lifted and Cheong-Seok will move on with his life.
What about Ae-Ran?
It seems that Cheong-Seok has now been given the ability to help souls cross over to the afterlife. Since Jin-Su is now dead, he seems to have passed the torch to her; Cheong-Seok is now the protector of the coffin.