This blog post examines why the film Paradise Murdered combines thriller, horror, and comedy to demand both fear and laughter from its audience, through genre analysis.
Genre Definition
The genre of “Paradise Murdered” is thriller. More precisely, this film centers on the splatter film subgenre of thriller, infused with elements of horror. Furthermore, by incorporating elements of slapstick comedy and mystery, it exemplifies the modern cinematic trend of blurring genre boundaries—the reality of genre convergence.
First, it is necessary to examine the thriller genre. According to Naver Encyclopedia, thrillers encompass horror films featuring ghosts, monsters, or creatures; occult films dealing with supernatural, magical, or mysterious phenomena or spirit possession; splatter films centered on murder and crime where blood splatters; SF films depicting human confusion and suffering when confronted with strange situations, SFX films utilizing special effects, and horror pictures emphasizing shocking terror and chills. In other words, thriller encompasses all dramas produced with the intent to stimulate the audience’s fear psychology. In the case of “Paradise Murdered,” the subject of this paper, the characteristics of splatter films and horror films are particularly prominent within this thriller genre.
Next, regarding the mystery genre, mystery refers to a film genre centered on solving events through intellectual logic. This genre emphasizes the intellectual process of deduction, solving problems by examining the cause-and-effect relationships throughout the unfolding of the events. The subject matter typically centers on events like murder or crime, and compared to other genres, it possesses the characteristic of strongly immersing the audience in the plot’s development. The plot often follows the format of a detective novel, and the music and sound design also play a role in maintaining constant tension.
At first glance, the thriller and mystery genres might seem similar, both using murder and crime as subjects and inducing constant tension in the audience. However, upon examining relevant materials, clear differences exist between the two. Mystery offers what is known as a ‘detective fantasy,’ where the audience participates in solving the case, while thriller provides a ‘victim fantasy,’ immersing the audience as a direct participant in the event. In other words, if mystery is a genre focused on uncovering ‘why the murder happened,’ thriller focuses on showing ‘how one survived.’ Furthermore, mystery is a ‘puzzle’ solved with the mind, while thriller is closer to a ‘nightmare’ that stimulates the senses and emotions. The nature of the two genres is clearly distinguished: an audience enjoying mystery concentrates on finding clues to the solution, whereas an audience enjoying thriller expects to be constantly startled.
Finally, slapstick comedy, also commonly called ‘noisy comedy,’ is a genre that applies this comedic form to film, eliciting laughter through exaggerated, chaotic acting and situations. Physical movements, timing, and over-the-top direction are central characteristics defining this genre.
Genre Characteristics Seen in “Paradise Murdered”
Mystery Genre Elements
The plot of “Paradise Murdered” unfolds as follows: A series of murders occurs on the isolated island ‘Geukrakdo,’ inhabited by 17 residents. Coincidentally, the radio breaks down, cutting off contact with the outside world. Consequently, the investigation into the murders begins, centered around Park Hae-il (played by Je Woo-sung), who works as the head of the island’s health center. Even from this setup alone, it’s clear the film distinctly possesses the characteristics of the mystery genre in terms of subject matter. Particularly, the process where Park Hae-il, as the central figure, attempts to solve the case based on intellectual logic faithfully follows the typical conventions of the mystery genre.
The first suspect is Deok-su, who vanished after playing cards with the transmission engineers murdered at the lodging house. Pan-su’s testimony—that Deok-su appeared at dawn on the day of the murders with bloodstained money, threatening to take Bong-soon away—establishes an alibi suggesting Deok-su committed the murder impulsively over a ‘money’ dispute at the card game. However, the discovery of Deok-su’s body soon plunges the case deeper into mystery. Meanwhile, Chun-bae, having seen a note stating ‘The village chief brought in something he shouldn’t have,’ begins to suspect the village chief. Ultimately, as mutual distrust festers, the bodies of the villagers continue to pile up.
Centered on Park Hae-il and Park Sol-mi (playing Gwi-nam), portrayed as the elite in the drama, the process of piecing together the truth of the incident follows the journey structure characteristic of the mystery genre. This structure has the audience follow the footsteps of a kind of ‘hero’ to uncover ‘who did it’. Furthermore, by compelling the audience to constantly search for clues to uncover “how the murders occurred,” “Paradise Murdered” clearly possesses the defining characteristics of the mystery genre.
Elements of Splatter Films within the Thriller Genre
From the film’s opening, the director juxtaposes the names of the lead actors in blood-red letters against a backdrop of blue ocean scenery. This contrasting montage screen suggests to the audience that this film will literally be a ‘blood-spattering’ splatter film. So, what specific elements of a splatter film can be identified within the movie?
First, examining the film’s subject matter, the central theme of ‘murder’ itself serves as a powerful motif enabling the film to follow the conventions of the splatter genre. One of the power line workers murdered at the card game collapses outside the door, blood pouring from his mouth. The scene where the bodies are discovered starkly presents two people hacked to death by a knife, entangled together. Amidst this, Chunbae receives a note stating, ‘The village chief brought in something he shouldn’t have,’ and later, while secretly infiltrating the village chief’s house to uncover the truth, he commits an unexpected murder. The village chief’s son is slashed by Chunbae’s knife, collapsing as blood gushes out like a turned-on faucet.
The villagers, already suspicious of each other, are persuaded by Chunbae to conclude that the village chief must be the culprit and storm his house. During the chaos, Chunbae shoots Sanggu squarely in the center of his forehead. Sanggu collapses, spilling thick streams of blood. Pansu, who tried to stop the fight, is also shot in the stomach by Chunbae’s gun, collapsing as blood gushes out. Witnessing these two deaths, the villagers are overcome with extreme terror and flee to the Shrine of the Virtuous Women. There, the village chief attempts to tell the villagers an important fact, but Chunbae shoots him in the head. He dies, his mouth filling with blood. After most villagers died, two electricians who tried to escape the island with their money also died when Chunbae smashed their heads with a Buddha statue.
Throughout the film, scenes of “blood splattering” appear continuously. The sounds and volume of blood emphasized in scenes of people being hacked with knives or shot with guns are expressed far more exaggeratedly than in reality. In this regard, it is clear that “Paradise Murdered” develops its story based on the conventions of the splatter film, a subgenre of thriller.
Elements of Horror Within the Thriller Genre
“Paradise Murdered” also incorporates various horror elements. Early in the film, the boatman ferries detectives investigating the murders to the island, leaving behind the words, “This is a village haunted by ghosts,” before vanishing abruptly. At this moment, the boatman has lost sight in one eye, giving him a so-called ‘dog eye’. The film utilizes the folk belief that ‘having a dog eye allows one to see ghosts’ to instill anxiety and provoke fear in the audience. Through this scene, viewers begin to consider the possibility that the murderer might not be human but a ghost, drawing them deeper into the film.
Another horror element is the ghost’s appearance in the film. Old Man Kim was born into a cursed family that starved their daughter-in-law to death to create a ‘chaste woman lineage’. As a reward for this lineage, the state bestowed the entire land of Geolrakdo, but the curse of the chaste woman ghost ultimately led to the downfall of Old Man Kim’s entire family. For this reason, the village chief builds a shrine to the virtuous woman at the village’s highest point to appease her wrath. This setup directly mirrors a recurring narrative trope in Korean horror films: a story centered on the ‘bitterness’ (han) of women sacrificed under excessive oppression. Amid the social climate of the Joseon Dynasty, where female chastity and purity were emphasized to extremes, many women became victims of excessive sexual norms. The chaste woman’s ghost in the film can also be interpreted as an entity born from this historical context.
However, the film consistently questions whether the chaste woman ghost actually exists. This is because only Chunbae, experiencing hallucinations due to drug side effects, and Yongbong, who travels to practice Taoism, can see the ghost. Of course, Old Man Kim also acknowledges the ghost’s existence and ultimately burns down the shrine, but this action can be seen as stemming from his own fear of escaping the curse and leaving the Pure Land.
By the film’s end, Chunbae is revealed as the mastermind behind all the murders. Yet the question lingers: Could all these events truly have originated from the virtuous woman’s curse? If we interpret Chunbae’s fundamental motivation for murder as stemming from the ghost of the virtuous woman, then “Paradise Murdered” can be seen as primarily a horror film, with other genres integrated around it, forming a composite genre structure.
Returning to the main point, examining the film’s depiction of the virtuous woman’s ghost: appearing in the typical white mourning attire, she leaves a strong impression from her first appearance. True to her starved-to-death backstory, the ghost appears at Chunbae’s house, ravenously devouring rice, and continues to haunt Chunbae thereafter. Particularly after Chun-bae commits his final murder, the scene where the chaste woman ghost, her mouth dripping with blood, tears into the corpse conveys an intensity of horror surpassing typical horror films. Furthermore, the ghost’s spine-chilling smile directed at the audience during the scene where Old Man Kim burns down the shrine provides extreme tension and fear, serving as a quintessential horror genre icon.
Comedic Genre Elements
Various comedic elements are also scattered throughout the film. On the evening of the murder, Taek-gi, the village’s only boy, heads to the health center to deliver food to its director, Park Hae-il. Finding the place empty, Taek-gi searches for Park, muttering, “Where’s this guy gone now?” The subsequent dialogue scene, featuring a thick dialect like “Sorry, sir” and an unchildlike tone, elicits natural laughter from the audience.
The next day after the murder, the convention of slapstick comedy repeats when all the villagers gather in front of the crime scene. When Pansu explains Deoksu’s threats, his rapid movements, as if the film were running at double speed, and the direction where Deoksu’s voice is dubbed over Pansu’s voice, elicit laughter from the audience. Furthermore, in the scene where they gather at the school to discuss the incident, while speculating “How did Deok-su die?”, the line “He must have drowned in the sea” is uttered. The screen immediately cuts to a scene of Deok-su, stuffed into a sack, being stabbed with a knife and then falling into the sea. Similarly, in the scene depicting the guess “He must have been buried alive,” the killer is comically portrayed struggling to bury the sack containing Deok-su due to its weight. By deliberately rendering these provocative and brutal scenes from the immediate post-murder deduction process in a comedic light, the film simultaneously induces tension and laughter.
Similarly, in a scene where the village chief’s family seriously discusses the murder, the camera first builds tension by showing shadows cast outside the door. But when the door opens, the three are merely munching on sweet potatoes. This scene releases the tension, naturally eliciting laughter from the audience.
Comic elements persist even at the murder scene. As Chunbae frames the village chief as the culprit and leads villagers storming into the chief’s house, Pansu is shot by Chunbae’s gun and collapses. Wounded, Pansu utters, “Oh dear, not here!” before falling onto Taekgi’s mother’s lap. Startled, she spreads her legs wide, causing Pansu to land headfirst upside down. Pansu is portrayed comically right up until his death, making the scene feel like watching a skit. Consequently, the audience bursts into laughter despite witnessing a horrific murder scene.
Finally, even in the extreme horror situation where the Shrine of the Loyal Woman burns and the ghost of the loyal woman appears, the comedic elements do not disappear. When Chunba shouts at the ghost, “Are you human or ghost?” the audience, who had been screaming in fright, bursts into laughter upon hearing this line. Although the film itself doesn’t feature an independent narrative within the comedy genre, the comedic icons and dialogue scattered throughout, along with the villagers’ colorful dialect, provide the audience with continuous laughter and serve to buffer the overall atmosphere of the work.
Conclusion
“Paradise Murdered” is a quintessential example of a hybrid genre film. It takes the subgenres of splatter film and mystery as its primary pillars, with the film’s basic plot unfolding according to the conventional narratives of these genres. By additionally incorporating icons and narratives from horror, another subgenre of thriller, the audience’s tension is further heightened. Finally, by adding comedic elements to certain characters and scenes, the film softens the overall atmosphere, making even the brutal scenes relatively easier to accept without significant discomfort.
Furthermore, the use of these comedic genre conventions can be interpreted as a device to reveal the satirical nature of the film’s underlying commentary on the era’s circumstances and social contradictions, going beyond simple humor. In this way, “Paradise Murdered” organically combines elements from various genres, achieving a complex and multidimensional cinematic accomplishment that cannot be explained by a single genre.
