Reading its synopsis on mydramalist, I didn’t know what to make of this horror show. It sounded like a cross between “Remington Steele” with a con artist working with a real pro, and “Master’s Sun” with a heroine needing a guy to fight the ghosts.

But so far, so good. I’m recommending this for a light fare. Here are my four reasons why.

1. One of the appeals of this kdrama for me is the competence of the female protagonist to slay the vengeful spirits. With Hong JiAh, I don’t have to worry about damsel – or a bimbo – in distress. She’s methodical and disciplined. No poltergeist is going to ambush her. She’s come prepared to fight with her equipment:

a load of salt to barricade a malignant spirit,
a censer to conjure it,
a big staple gun to wall it in,
a pair of Dr. Marten boots for kicking its ass,
and a binyeo or hairpin for killing it.

Love her killer hair, too!

credit: komunyoung’s tumblr

Most ghost stories have the spirits haunting the humans, but in this kdrama, it’s the heroine who hunts them down. When I realized that the usual trope of spirits overpowering the woman doesn’t apply to this plot, there wasn’t anything really scary about this show…except the usual the computer-generated images (CGI) ghosts popping out.

My only wish is that JiAh remains a true STRONG female character throughout 16 episodes. You see, it invariably happens in these kdramas that a *badass* heroine is simply the screenwriter’s shorthand for a girl who karate chops the bad guys but has lamb chops for brains.

Baaaa…aaad.

And I’m looking at you, Gureum of “L.U.C.A.”

To add insult to injury, whenever a badass heroine falls in love, she sheds off her toughness and becomes weak-kneed. Grrr. I hope that JiAh continues to be cunning and fearsome till the end. I don’t want her character to recede in stature or to fade away in the background to allow the male protagonist to have his moment in the sun.

2. The second thing I like so far about this drama is the world-building. It’s consistent and believable.

Remember when I complained about the Catholic exorcism in that “L.U.C.A.”? I said that the screenwriter clearly didn’t do his research on the rite of exorcism because he didn’t know that the real danger when the nun exorcised the “devil” in the child is that the “devil” would transfer and leech on to another person.

Thankfully, the screenwriter of “Sell Your Haunted House” did his/her job. In fact, that’s the whole point of JiAh’s search for a psychic to work with her. In this first episode, she and her manager were auditioning mediums. It’s imperative for her to have a good psychic at her side since she’s only an exorcist. To perform her exorcism, she still needs a psychic or a medium to function as a vessel for the disembodied spirit to enter into. Once the spirit takes over the psychic’s body, she can physically kill it and dispatch it to the netherworld.

It’s funny that, at the job audition, the euphemism for psychic is “real estate assistant.” Actual knowledge of real estate trends isn’t part of the job requirement. When HwaJung, the manager, interviewed the applicants for the psychic’s position, she noted that sleepwalking and sleep paralysis were the basic qualities of the applicant. These traits are signs that the applicant is susceptible to being possessed by spirits. What appears to be sleepwalking or sleep paralysis to a casual observer is actually a spirit taking over their unconscious mind.

That’s why Oh InBeom is shown dreaming of ghosts. In his dream, he was floating in a pool when spirits emerged to grab him by his feet. But in his dream, his pendant gleamed and spooked the spirits away. One ghostly hand brushed against him, awaking him from his nightmare. I took this incident to mean that he’s predisposed to feel the presence of dead souls around him. But his pendant acts like a force field and wards off the spirits.

To me, it’s a bit ironic then that InBeom conned a man to buy a fake “energy field generator” to get rid of ghosts around the home when he himself is using a pendant to create an energy field for himself. This tells me that one of InBeom’s faults is his lack of self-awareness.

3. The third thing I like about this drama is its novel perspective on exorcism. It depicts the vengeful spirit as a pitiful creature trapped in its present condition and requiring exorcism to liberate it.

JiAh’s mom: For a dead person to be left in this world without a body, and only as a soul is just like being outside with nothing but your underwear on in the middle of a winter storm.
Young JiAh: Why wouldn’t the soul leave if it’s so cold? Is it stupid?
JiAh’s mom: They can’t leave because they are so sad and suffered such unfairness. So that they can forget the sadness and unfairness and go to a warm place and be well…

credit: komunyoung’s tumblr

The fact that JiAh’s own mother is a vengeful spirit desperate for an exorcism makes:

a. the rite a whole lot less scary and demonic, and
b. the vengeful spirits more sympathetic.

I guess this explains why one of JiAh’s first questions to a potential client is to ascertain whether he/she has killed someone.

Her mother didn’t seek to become a vengeful spirit but she became one as a direct result of somebody else’s wrongdoing.

JiAh’s question, plus the finial on the banister,

tell me that JiAh is selective when it comes to clients.

I’m not Korean, but I think the animal on the finial is a haechi. It’s a mythical animal that’s considered incorruptible and righteous. lol. I know that a haechi is associated with law and justice because I watched a 2019 kdrama with the same name for its title.

JiAh wants to make sure that, when she exorcises a vengeful spirit, she isn’t unwittingly aiding the property owner to get away scot-free with foul play. Hence, her inquiry about client’s history and her comment that guilty consciences can dream up vengeful spirits.

JiAh: Let’s leave.
Client: What? Right now? We’re performing an exorcism?
JiAh: Before that, I need to check if there actually is a vengeful spirit. To a person who is guilty of something, even simple cat sounds could be heard as the sounds of a ghost full of resentment.

She performs exorcism, not simply to gain commission from selling an otherwise unsellable haunted house at market price, but to help these vengeful spirits leave for a “warmer” place.

Note: this is probably why she exhales cold air and creates icy walls. The freezing temperature forces the spirit to come out of its hiding place.

4. The last thing I like about this drama is the minimal fear factor.

Maybe it’s because the spirits are already dead, but I’m relieved that the director didn’t engage in gratuitous gore and violence even when showing the flashbacks of the death scenes.

To me, a horror film is terrifying because I can relate to the protagonist’s fear of death. When I can see that a heroine’s life is at stake, then every shadow and every dark corner, or even the sound of a creaking door becomes scary. It isn’t at all necessary for a computerized ghost to jump out for me to feel the menace looming. In fact, the longer the apparition of a ghost is delayed, the more the scene becomes nerve-racking. My instinct for survival is heightened at the mere thought that a deadly attack is imminent.

That’s why this drama doesn’t scare me one bit.

Since I know that the director isn’t going to shock me with graphic blood and guts, and that JiAh is more likely to die from over-eating than from a ghost attack, I can watch this drama at night in the comfort of my bed.

So there you go, my four reasons for liking this show.  As I promised, @GB, I’m keeping this review light and stress-free. 🙂