Yoo Ah-in Returns to Film for the First Time Since His Drug Conviction in Jang Jae-hyun's Occult Thriller 'Vampir'

Actor Yoo Ah-in is set to lead Vampir, a new mystery-occult film from director Jang Jae-hyun, marking his first role since a drug conviction effectively ended his career activities three years ago. Distributor NEW confirmed the casting on August 18, releasing footage from a script reading that also revealed the full ensemble.

Vampir follows an anonymous hired operative who is commissioned by a cleric to track down an unidentified group of heretics, only to find himself slowly changed by the encounter. Yoo Ah-in plays that operative: a cool, unshakeable figure whose composure begins to crack as the case pulls him into something he cannot reason his way out of. It is the kind of role built around a slow interior collapse, which makes it a pointed choice for an actor returning from a very public fall from grace.

This is genuinely Yoo Ah-in's comeback, not just chronologically. Two earlier films, Seungbu (2025) and High Five (2025), reached theaters in recent years, but both were completed before the legal proceedings against him concluded. Vampir is the first project he has signed onto after the courts handed down their verdict.

The Supreme Court confirmed that verdict in July last year: one year in prison, suspended for two years, plus a fine of two million won. The charges covered habitual use of propofol and cannabis between September 2020 and January 2023, with 181 documented instances of medical narcotics use, as well as illegally obtaining more than 1,100 sleeping pills prescribed under other people's names across 44 transactions. When the initial allegations surfaced in 2023, Yoo Ah-in immediately halted all activities and departed the Netflix series Hellbound Season 2.

For Jang Jae-hyun, Vampir is the follow-up to Exhuma (2024), which drew 11.91 million admissions and cemented his standing as the director Korean audiences turn to when they want something that sits at the uneasy boundary between folklore and dread. His earlier credits, The Priests (2015) and Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019), built that reputation steadily. The signs pointing to Yoo Ah-in joining the project had been circulating since late last year, and the two were spotted together at a screening of the film Hope last month.

The rest of the cast is strong. Lee Sung-min plays the cleric who sets the story in motion, a man of faith who has broken a sacred prohibition for reasons rooted in personal conviction and now wrestles with the guilt that follows. Lee Joon-hyuk takes on a heretic who craves immortality. Yoon Kyung-ho plays a smuggler who travels with the heretics, Choi Hyun-wook portrays a U.S. military lieutenant with unclear motives, and Doi plays a girl shrouded in mystery.

Production starts this month, with a release targeted for 2028.