Kim Ki-young made horror films after studying to be a dentist and making propaganda movies. His 1960 movie, The Housemaid, is considered to be one of the best Korean films ever. Today, filmmakers like Im Sang-soo, Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook proclaim his films like Woman of Fire, Insect Woman, Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death and this movie. When Youn Yuh-jung won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Minari, she brought up Kim Ki-young in her speech and said that he was a genius.

There’s an island in legend called Parang where the men die after they reproduce, leaving behind a country of women. Marketing manager Seon Woo-hyeon (Kim Chung-chui) has named a new resort after this place and plans a boat trip to the island that inspired it for the media but journalist Cheon Nam-seok (Choi Yun-seok) refuses to go as he believes that Parang is real. After the two go for a drink, Cheon Nam-seok disappears and Seon Woo-hyeon is blamed for his death. To clear his name, he goes to Parang to discover what it’s really like.

Imagine what happens when he finds a pagan society that is run by women, all of them the widows of men lost to the sea. Chun’s past is strange, as his father disappeared after first seeing the island, his mother committed suicide after being taken advantage of by an exorcist and the exorcist’s daughter stole money so he could escape the island, if not his deadly destiny. As for her, she was tied to rocks on the beach and left to die.

There’s so much mystery in this that the central murder no longer matters. There’s a strange shaman, women desperate to be with child, a water demon, pollution, necrophilia and so much more. This isn’t a sit back and relax movie. It must be devoured and explored.

Io Island is part of the new Severin box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume 2. It has extras including an audio commentary by archivist and Korean film historian Ariel Schudson and Dr. Hyunseon Lee On Shamanism in Korean visual culture. There is also a short, The Present.

You can order this set from Severin.