Nam Dong-hyup’s Korean horror-comedy, Handsome Guys, revolves around best friends Kang Jae-pil and Park Sang-goo, who decide to move to a house in the woods to live a peaceful rural life. While Jae-pil and Sang-goo were decent, kind men, they were always misunderstood because of their tough appearance. Young girls felt threatened around them, and cops always regarded them with suspicion. While the best friends firmly believed they were handsome men, they couldn’t really understand the reason behind the prejudice they often faced.
The European dream house that the best friends decided to purchase after seeing an impressive picture online turned out to be a shabby abandoned property. It was built by an American missionary, and the place was pretty much falling apart. But Sang-goo liked the house—it was not perfect, but it had everything he’d wished for. Jae-pil didn’t protest, and they ultimately purchased the property. On their very first day at the house, they discovered a basement with an inscription of the Sigil of Baphomet on the wooden floor. Was the house haunted? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Did the goat ghost story turn out to be true?
A group of six students were partying at a house close to the woods. They had crossed paths with Jae-pil and Sang-goo, and they immediately assumed that the two friends were criminals. On their way to the vacation house, they accidentally ran over a black goat. Kay Mi-na had suggested burying the dead goat, but her friends didn’t think it was necessary. Later, Jae-pil and Sang-goo carried the goat to their new house and buried it at their property.
At night, when the popular golf player, Seong-bin, and Mi-na were seated together, he shared a ghost story. The house belonged to Seong-bin, and he stated that the place was his grandfather’s hometown. According to the stories he’d heard, there was a girl who was once possessed by a demon. She would run around like a goat and hurt the villagers. This resulted in chaos, and the villagers decided to lock her in a basement. They’d called the American pastor to deal with the situation. The inscription that Jae-pil and Sang-goo had noticed in the basement of their house was the spot where the exorcism ritual had unfolded. The demon, Baphomet, was determined to drag all the weak human souls to hell. The demon’s plan had worked so far, and it was furious when the pastor intervened. Even after the crucifix was placed on her forehead, the demon didn’t immediately abandon the human body. One of the witnesses of the exorcism, Yohan, had mistakenly stepped over the circle encompassing the Sigil of Baphomet that the pastor had drawn, and immediately the devil got rid of the crucifix. To banish the goat demon, the pastor pulled out his silver gun and shot her in the head. The demon finally left. Mi-na didn’t believe in ghosts, and while Seong-bin agreed that he thought it was all too ridiculous as well, the fact that his cousin was killed after the crucifix hit his head couldn’t be ignored. His grandfather had bought Seong-bin a talisman for ten million won from a popular magician to keep the goat demon at bay.
Why was Kim Mi-na spared from being randomly killed?
Min-na started to see Seong Jin for who he was—a narcissistic golf player. She overheard him insulting her friend, Bo-ra, so she stepped out of the house and tried to contact her. But she didn’t expect to run into Jae-pil and Sang-goo once again. They were fishing by the lake, and Mi-na assumed that they had been following her from the supermarket, where they first crossed paths. She was so scared that she didn’t watch her step, and she fell into the lake. The best friends rescued her, but the minute she opened her eyes and saw them up close, she freaked out. She attempted to run, but once again she tripped and fell. The boys carried her to their house, and Jason and Bo-ra witnessed the whole incident. They informed the rest of the group about it, but Seong-bin was more concerned about his missing phone than Mi-na.
When Mi-na woke up in the morning at the strangers’ house, she assumed she had been abducted. She didn’t trust the men, and her opinion about them hadn’t changed. But eventually, she realized that the men meant her no harm. Sang-goo had made an elaborate breakfast spread for her. He was happy to have a guest in their house, and he wanted to impress her. Mi-na figured she’d made a terrible mistake by misjudging two good souls. They had breakfast together, and she developed a loving friendship with Sang-goo. Jae-pil was a little envious of their friendship, but he didn’t protest because he knew that Sang-goo was really happy to be an elder brother in someone’s life. Mi-na was spared from the goat demon because she was capable of telling the difference between good and evil. While she did make a wrong judgement of character, she had also apologized for her mistake, and she finally saw them for who they were. Also, we eventually found out that Mi-na was destined to play a significant role in vanquishing the goat demon.
What happened to the cops?
Mi-na’s friends arrived at Jae-pil and Sang-goo’s property, and seeing them from a distance, they were convinced that the duo were serial killers. They attempted to attack the two friends, and while Mi-na tried to defend them, it was too late. Strangely, four of her friends were either fatally injured or badly wounded. Byeong-jo, the one who was mistreated by the rest of the group, came face-to-face with a literal reanimated goat, and the incident left him scarred. He met two cops on his way back to the vacation spot, and he told them about the goat as well as the two men who’d abducted his friend, Mi-na. When the cops arrived at the property, the front yard was already in a bloody state. Seong-bin had been electrocuted, Yong-jun had fallen into a wooden structure filled with nails, and Jason had mistakenly jumped into a shredding machine, resulting in his immediate death.
Seong-bin was the only one who regained consciousness after the cops arrived. The cops looked around the house and asked Jae-pil and Sang-goo to surrender themselves. The men didn’t protest, but once again luck saved them. One of the cops was killed, while the other was almost burnt to death.
What caused Baphomet’s awakening?
Meanwhile, Yohan (the witness who’d mistakenly crossed the circle during the exorcism) suddenly felt a supernatural force was calling out to him. He woke up in his hospital bed and asked the nurse to bring him the book that the American pastor, Mr. Baker, had left with him. He’d told Yohan that if the demon returned, he would be the one who would save his village. According to the ancient scripture, sixty-six years and six months after the exorcism, five evil people were destined to sacrifice a goat, which would open the door to hell. The five students had to be killed for the awakening of Baphomet, whose return would completely destroy the world.
Seong-bin and Byeong-jo teamed up to seek revenge on the ‘serial killer.’ They tied Jae-pil to a tree and repeatedly hit him. Mi-na tried to stop them, but Seong-bin didn’t care. He made it very clear that he didn’t put his life at risk to find Mi-na; it was only his phone that he cared about. He didn’t hesitate to call Mi-na and her friends ‘idiots,’ and Sang-goo was deeply offended by it. Seong-bin continued insulting those around him, and Byeong-jo did the unimaginable—he smacked Seong-bin with a stone. He attempted to steal Seong-bin’s phone, determined to damage his reputation by spreading controversial pictures, but his dream was cut short when Bo-ra approached them. She was already dead, and her body was taken over by the goat demon. She chased Byeong-jo, while the rest had to figure out their next course of action.
What happened to Seong-bin?
As expected. Seong-bin didn’t care about others, and he headed to the house in the woods and found the silver gun (the same gun that the pastor used sixty-six years and six months ago) in a cabinet. He used the gun to threaten Jae-pil and Sang-goo into surrendering their car keys so that he could escape. But before he could leave, Byeong-jo returned to the house, but this time he was possessed by the goat demon. Seong-bin tried to defend himself by showing the demon his talisman worth ten million won. But to his surprise, the demon burnt it down in a second. Jae-pil, Sang-goo, and Mi-na eventually managed to trap the demon, aka Byeong-jo, in the basement. But it was impossible to contain him. The demon pulled Seong-bin into the basement and killed him. After the five bodies were placed in the Sigil of Baphomet, Baphomet’s spirit was awakened.
What role did Yohan play in defeating the demon?
Yohan arrived on time, though his technique didn’t work on the demon. Baphomet had possessed Seong-bin’s body, and Yohan attempted to conduct an exorcism. But the spirit could already recognize Yohan’s lack of conviction, and as a result, the demon simply pushed him away. To escape the evil spirit, Jae-pil started a fire and ran out of the house. But the demon was not so easy to vanquish. It had the power to turn dead bodies into zombie slaves. While Jae-pil and Sang-goo tried to tackle the zombies, Mi-na was advised by Yohan to find the silver gun since it was the only way they could defeat the demon.
Did Jae-pil, Sang-goo, and Mi-na destroy Baphomet?
In Handsome Guys’ ending, Mi-na finally found the silver gun, but it was broken. There was only one silver bullet left inside, so she decided to fix it on a nail gun and shoot the demon. Just when Mi-na confidently confronted Baphomet, she realized that the nail gun plug was lying loose. Jae-pil and Sang-goo immediately plugged in the nail gun. Baphomet was about to choke Mi-na to death; thanks to her friends, she survived. Mi-na pulled the trigger and shot Baphomet and vanquished the demon. Mi-na, Jae-pil, and Sang-goo couldn’t believe their eyes when they watched a hand appear from the sky, and it took Baphomet away. Was it God who took away the defeated demon spirit from earth, or was it the devil? That remained a mystery. The gate to hell was finally closed, and the world appeared to be normal, and it was a bright sunny day once again. Jae-pil, Sang-goo, and Mi-na were the three angels sent by God who were meant to protect the world from the demon, and that’s perhaps all the more reason why they survived while the rest perished. Unfortunately, Jae-pil and Sang-goo were arrested for the murder of the students, but they were ultimately released. They were interviewed by local press, and they tried their best to explain the strange phenomenon. Even though their lives are drastically impacted by the series of events, one thing is for sure: Mi-na will continue to be an integral part of Jae-pil and Sang-go’s lives.
