Revelations Movie Review: This thriller with a fascinating premise fizzles out

Netflix’s new thriller Revelations posits the path of religion and that of righteousness to solving crime at the opposite ends of the spectrum. According to their professions, a detective (Shin Hyun-been), an agent of free will, grapples with the morality of her choices during an investigation as she suffers from the guilt of losing her sister, whereas a pastor (Ryu Jun-yeol) considers himself an agent of divinity whose purpose of existence is to extinguish crime from this world. What happens when their ideologies clash amid a missing persons case forms the crux of Revelations. Train to Busan-fame director Yeon Sang-ho’s film has a dark and brooding premise, an array of strong performances, and an intriguing build-up, but the film runs out of steam at the end.

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Cast: Ryu Jun-yeol, Shin Hyun-been, Shin Min-jae

Streamer: Netflix

Language: Korean

The main strength of Revelations is also its achilles heel. While the way of telling a story from multiple characters’ perspectives adds to the film’s intrigue, it ultimately leads to a loss of focus. For example, at the start, the pastor tells a former convict (Shin Min-jae), who is fresh out of prison, that church is for sinners and God loves everyone. Soon, it turns out that the pastor has intentions that go beyond his religious facade, an aspect that, while brimming with potential, fails to deliver on its promised complexity. Ryu Jun-yeol fleshes out a character whose mere glances and silences and subtle dialogue speak volumes, such as when his pastor stares at the convict’s ankle monitor or describes the latter as a ‘rapist’. However, the screenplay sells him short. Similarly, the film reduces the detective’s psychological struggle to mere hallucinations; while the film tries to show how the struggle affects her cognition during a high-stakes investigation, it fails to make us care. It would have been better to eliminate the detective’s guilt angle and portray her as an agent who is in complete command of her decision-making prowess. Then, we would have had an even better film that juxtaposes its central themes in a way that jolts us out of our passive perception.

Amid all this, there is also the conventional angle of a killer and a victim of parental abuse that the film spends considerable time exploring. Where a mere mention of the fact that he has this history of trauma would suffice, the film offers a slightly elaborate backstory on the character. All of this is a pity because Shin Hyun-been and Shin Min-jae deliver earnest performances as the detective and the fugitive, respectively.

Ironically, Revelations becomes less and less revelatory and increasingly predictable the longer it runs and the deeper the characters get to the investigation. Ultimately, it is a series of contrivances that help the detective solve the case at the heart of the story. The screenplay narrowly avoids a descent into farcical exposition when a character references a key element called 'the one-eyed monster'. It feels like a curious twist of luck that the film, after its multiple missteps, avoids that last narrative pitfall. Luck, not divine will.