Utopian Hauntings: Imagining Post-Colonial Futures in The Wailing (2016) and Exhuma (2024)

This paper examines the imagination and construction of post-colonial futures through the haunting of the "utopian impulse" in two South Korean horror films: The Wailing (2016) and Exhuma (2024). While post-colonial critiques often view utopianism with suspicion, this study utilizes Fredric Jameson, Rubem Alves, and Jacques Derrida to argue that the utopian spirit “to-come” is a necessary subversive force for resisting totalizing systems of injustice. Through a comparative analysis, I explore how both films utilize diverse religious and spiritual frameworks, including Shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity, and animism, to face the historical trauma from the Japanese occupation. I contend that while The Wailing suggests an open-ended nihilistic failure and Exhuma in collaborative resolution, both films ultimately manifest the process of Derrida’s "justice-to-come." These cinematic horror narratives demonstrate that the post-colonial future remains a deferred but persistent haunting—a utopian call to imagine alternative realities despite the lingering horrors of occupation and division.