Priest: The Korean Drama That Brings Exorcism Into the Hospital
At South Catholic Hospital, doctors are dealing with patients who have symptoms that medicine cannot explain.
Doctor Ham Eun-ho finds herself caught up in a series of supernatural events involving two Catholic priests, Oh Soo-min and Moon Ki-sun. The priests belong to an unofficial exorcist group called 634 Regia, and they work to protect people from evil spirits.
That is the setup for Priest, a 2018 OCN drama that brings medical drama and Catholic exorcism together. The series stars Yeon Woo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, and Park Yong-woo.
A Doctor and Two Exorcists
The three main characters approach the supernatural from very different backgrounds.
Oh Soo-min, played by Yeon Woo-jin, became an exorcist after losing his mother to a demonic possession. He was trained by Father Moon Ki-sun, played by Park Yong-woo, and became part of 634 Regia, an unofficial group that performs exorcisms.
Ham Eun-ho, played by Jung Yu-mi, works as a doctor at South Catholic Hospital. Her medical training gives her a completely different way of looking at the strange cases appearing around her.
Their differences become especially important when patients begin showing symptoms that cannot easily be explained.
When Medicine Meets Exorcism
The hospital setting gives Priest its central concept.
The drama follows supernatural incidents taking place at a Catholic hospital, with doctors and exorcists working together to save patients. OCN described the series as a “medical exorcism” drama, combining the medical and exorcism genres within the same story.
Eun-ho approaches her patients through medicine and evidence. Soo-min and Ki-sun recognize signs of possession and use Catholic rituals to confront them.
Neither side has all the answers.
That tension gives the hospital scenes another layer. A patient’s condition can lead to questions about both their physical health and the possibility of something supernatural.
Soo-min’s Connection to 634 Regia
Soo-min’s personal history is closely tied to the work he does.
His mother was possessed by an evil spirit and died after she was unable to receive an exorcism. That experience led him to train under Moon Ki-sun and eventually become an exorcist himself.
His work with 634 Regia also puts him in situations where the stakes are personal. The group exists outside the normal structures of the Catholic Church, and its members perform exorcisms to protect people from supernatural threats.
For Soo-min, the work comes with memories of what happened to his mother and a determination to prevent other families from experiencing the same loss.
The Horror Comes From Losing Someone
When Priest was introduced in 2018, director Kim Jong-hyun described the series as being less concerned with frightening audiences through evil itself and more interested in the fear of losing someone you love.
That idea runs through the drama’s supernatural storyline.
The exorcisms provide the horror, but the characters have personal reasons for taking those risks. Soo-min’s history with his mother is one example, while the relationships between the doctors, priests, patients, and their families give the supernatural cases an emotional dimension.
The result is a story where saving someone from possession can be just as important as understanding what caused it.
A Different Kind of Korean Horror Drama
Priest arrived shortly after OCN’s The Guest, another 2018 supernatural series centered on exorcism.
The two dramas approach the subject differently. The Guest draws heavily from Korean shamanism, while Priest takes its inspiration from Catholic exorcism and Western supernatural horror. The production team specifically highlighted that distinction when discussing the series.
That makes Priest a useful watch for viewers interested in Korean supernatural dramas but looking for a Catholic setting and a medical storyline.
Watch Priest
Priest originally aired from November 24, 2018, to January 20, 2019, with 16 episodes. Amasian TV currently lists all 16 episodes with English captions.
The cast includes Yeon Woo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, and Park Yong-woo.
If you like Korean dramas involving exorcism, supernatural mysteries, hospitals, and horror, Priest brings those elements together through the story of a doctor and two priests trying to protect their patients from forces they cannot treat with medicine alone.