I find it a little bit difficult to analyze why I enjoyed so much 'Gwoemul'. I am no big fan of monster movies, and while I like horror films I suffered too often watching them recently because of the inflation of films in the genre, so it is very hard to satisfy me here. It is not actually on the horror side where 'Gwoemul' succeeds the best either, its limping monster surging from the water of the river is a mix of what we fear about the Loch Ness monster and a big lizard, but not really that scary. The third component of the mix is a family movie describing a quite dis-functional family at first sight whose life is badly affected by the monster abduction of the youngest girl. Yet, nothing too special here either in the story if we are to except that rules that we know from classical family movies are broken here in an atmosphere that oddly mixes melodrama and comedy, with some of the characters badly suffering and even dying on screen at untypical timing. Here lies maybe the secret of the film - it dares break the conventions, combines horror and family relations, monsters and ecological policies in a mix with no rules set in advance, and all with an apparent nuance of directness and cruel parody. The result is highly entertaining, the good professional skills the director and his team show with camera and sound help without becoming principal actors as in many monster movies. At the end 'Gwoemul' leaves a surprisingly positive impression of freshness, efficiency and good entertainment.