[HanCinema's Film Review] "Handsome Guys"

Sang-goo (played by Lee Hee-jun) and Jae-pil (played by Lee Sung-min) are a couple of well-meaning guys with bewildering fashion sense who move out to the rural South Korean countryside to try and fulfill their dream of home ownership. As it happens, Seong-bin (played by Jang Dong-joo) is a hot shot college kid partying in the same area with his entourage. While aware of the fact that he is continually threatened by an evil spirit, Seong-bin doesn't take it that seriously- although to be fair he has no reason to for most of the runtime.

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That "Handsome Guys" doesn't yet have more exposure in international markets is a bit remarkable. It's a remake of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, and fans of that film, in the United States anyway, are more likely than average to be interested in South Korean film too. But I digress. The chief change between the two movies is the presence of an actual demon- a surprising improvement, even as the core of the story still revolves around often gruesome misunderstandings.

That the leads have no idea they're in a horror movie remains a large part of the charm. The first good look we get at Sang-goo and Jae-pil outside of the snobby impressions of the younger characters establish Sang-goo as unreasonably optimistic about a house that certainly looks cursed, even if he doesn't know it's literally cursed. Meanwhile, Jae-pil acts like a grumpy older brother, showing remarkable patience in the name of love, or possibly just his love of home improvement.

Both performances are great because while they're offputting and weird at first, Sang-goo and Jae-pil rapidly become very charming characters. This makes it very easy to see them from both sympathetic and unsympathetic perspectives, since of course other characters who haven't spent time with them never leave their initial bad impression. Sang-goo and Jae-pil aren't even local to the neighborhood- the cops are just as suspicious of them as the college kids are.

But as a horror comedy, what "Handsome Guys" really needs are solid jokes- and it has plenty of those. The script even manages some excellent ones in the flashback scenes with no major cast members and a frankly terrible white actor. Since all the humor revolves around clumsy misunderstandings, it's never that important for characters to really have any idea what's going on. Most of the time, it's funnier if they don't, which paradoxically makes the moments of hypercompetence that much more surprising and funny.

With 1,774,645 admissions at the South Korean box office this summer, "Handsome Guys" did all right. It didn't do fantastically, but then the concept is difficult enough to market that even a performance like this is fairly impressive. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil itself made relatively little money from box office receipts. And with an Audience Award win at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival earlier this week, it's fair to say to "Handsome Guys" will have a fair amount of presence on its own as a cult.

favorite in the years to come.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Handsome Guys" is directed by Nam Dong-hyub, and features Lee Sung-min, Lee Hee-jun, Gong Seung-yeon, Park Ji-hwan, Lee Kyu-hyung, Jang Dong-joo. Release date in Korea: 2024/06/26.