Cannes 2026 – Hope: an enjoyable monster and alien invasion film

The Korean Na Hong-jin returns a decade after the immense The Strangers and surprises with a film 100% calibrated for fun.

Within the Première editorial team, it was THE big expectation of this Cannes 2026, the film which was possibly going to haunt our nights and raise an edition, halfway through, a bit disappointing. So here is the big return of Na Hong-jin – on the Croisette as in the cinema – with Hopeten years after his masterpiece The Strangersfrom which we never really recovered. A little dizziness: what would the South Korean thriller prodigy have in store for us this time?

For his first selection in competition, he takes a step aside and tackles the alien invasion film: in a small port town, a monster from up there destroys everything in its path and sows death, while two cops and a few heavily armed residents try to shoot it down. Except that the creature has particularly tough skin.

Masterful opening hour where Na Hong-jin rushes headfirst into the action, knobs in the red. They rush through the alleys in search of a beast that has long been invisible, but followed closely by the corpses and the exploded walls that it leaves behind. The pieces of bravery follow one another, enjoyable, to the point that the film will never quite recover.

But the detours towards the paranormal investigation into the little green men and the comedy (exceptional story of upset digestion told by a character) manage to densify this big baby of 2 hours 40 minutes, a formidable fusion between Korean and Hollywood cinema (Predator, Alien, Terminator 2, War of the Worlds, Jaws…It’s all there). Before returning to guns – whose size and power only increase -, tracking and chases.

Hope has the air of an ultra-luxurious Z series and therefore pure spectator pleasure. Not at all cerebral but with a sense of direction and high-level editing, which produces perfectly delirious moments of tension. The Cannes competition has really started.

Hope by Na Hong-jin, with Jung-Min Hwang, In-sung Zo, Jung Ho-Yeon… 2:40 a.m. No French release date at the moment.