Korea Animal Rights Advocates raises suspicions of animal abuse in “Exhuma”
The movie "Exhuma", which surpassed 10 million viewers, has been embroiled in controversy over animal abuse in relation to scenes featuring various animals
On April 1st, the animal rights organization Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) stated, “At the Animal Participation Media Monitoring Bureau, 8 opinions regarding ‘Exhuma’ were registered in just one month. The movie features scenes where various animals such as pigs, chickens and dogs appear to be in danger.“
In this regard, KARA sent an official document to the production company Showbox on March 12th, inquiring about how the animal shoots were conducted.
The official document KARA sent to Showbox contained seven inquiries.
The inquiries were “Were there any injured or deceased animals during the shoot?“, “If real animals were used, what was the process of hiring and returning them?“, “Were the pig carcasses genuine or models?“, “What efforts were made to minimize stress and ensure the safety of animals before and after shooting?“, “Were veterinarians or experts present at the shooting site?“, and “Were guidelines established for the safety of animals?“
However, Showbox reportedly did not respond to any inquiries.
KARA pointed out various scenes appearing in “Exhuma”.
They claimed, “In the past, scenes of killing animals and splattering their blood used to be common, but that’s not acceptable anymore. In an era where harming animals and filming animal corpses are considered animal abuse and rights violations, sacrificing animals for the sake of the story is unacceptable.”
Furthermore, one of the members of the Animal Participation Media Monitoring Bureau expressed curiosity about whether the numerous animals in “Exhuma” were models, computer graphic or actual animals, questioning whether it was necessary to include animals in the scenes due to the genre’s nature and whether efforts were made to minimize animal usage properly.
In particular, KARA criticized a scene in “Exhuma” involving pig carcasses being butchered.
They said, “Stabbing and slashing a pig’s body dozens of times is akin to torture. It’s infuriating and violent to treat an already lifeless animal in such a manner, considering the painful reality of being slaughtered for meat.“
Furthermore, KARA pointed out Showbox’s failure to respond to their inquiries. KARA vowed to continue reporting and engaging in related activities regarding animal filming for “Exhuma”.
Lastly, they sharply remarked, “If this continues, there will be no progress in the Korean occult genre.”
In relation to this, on April 2nd, Showbox told Asia Economy Daily, “We haven’t been able to check the Animal Participation Media Monitoring Bureau’s email due to internal circumstances so far. We will respond after confirming the content with the production team.”
