Jang Jae-hyun, the director of Korean blockbuster Exhuma, is set to begin filming horror Vampir this month with an all-star cast led by Yoo Ah-in.
The star of Lee Chang-dong’s Burning and last year’s box office hit The Match, Yoo will play a contract killer who tracks down a mysterious pagan group at the request of a clergyman.
The priest will be played by Lee Sung-min of Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and box office hit 12.12: The Day, while Lee Jun-hyuk of action blockbuster The Roundup: No Way Out plays a heretic longing for eternal life who undergoes a dramatic transformation.
They are joined by Yoon Kyung-ho of My Daughter Is A Zombie, the highest-grossing local film at last year’s Korean box office, and Choi Hyun-wook, star of multiple Netflix dramas including Weak Hero and Notes From The Last Row. Rising K-pop star Doy (Kim Do-i) rounds out the cast.
Shooting is scheduled to begin this month and will continue into the end of the year, with a target release of 2028. It is produced by Pinetown Production, with distribution by NEW.
Vampir marks Jang’s first project since Exhuma, which was the highest earning film of 2024 in South Korea. The supernatural horror grossed $81.8m from 11.9 million admissions, securing nearly 10% of the Korean industry’s total gross that year.
It is also the highest-grossing Korean film in Vietnam and Indonesia, and earned $93.9m worldwide.
Jang is also known for his 2015 debut The Priests and 2019’s Svaha: The Sixth Finger, led by future Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae.
The filmmaker first revealed he was working on a vampire story over two years ago, in an interview with ScreenDaily, citing Dracula author Bram Stoker as inspiration and promising a film that will be no less unsettling than Exhuma.
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