El Clóset

Name a korean horror movie. I've seen it. Where did all the good korean horror from the early 2000s go ? Somehow people thought "The Wailing" was a great movie and now everyone is trying to copy it. Exorcism, Shamanism everywhere. Where did the subtle creeping up your brain horror go ? This movie is like an american exorcism movie. It even has jump scares. It starts rather promising but becomes kinda uncreative quick. I have seen most of this somewhere before, in a better form, in an US movie(Insidious). That's not the kind of horror I want from a korean horror movie. Theres a hundred better US movies with that topic out there. Not impressed at all.

Kwang-bin Kim's full length directorial debut, Keullojet (the Closet) 2020, is clearly influenced not only by the Ringu series of films but also well-established themes in Asian horror (eg a vindictive female ghost). However there is a lot more to Keullojet. The atmosphere created beautifully compliments the themes which the film conveys and the acting, esp by Jung-wu Ha and Nam-gil Kim, is excellent. As such Keullojet becomes more than something like the tacky Insidious (yet another movie which clearly influenced the second act) and presents a well-scripted secondary layer to it. 7/10.

Non-creatively borrowed (to say politely) theme elements done many times before. 1. Family with tragic history go to live in an isolated house with a past. 2. Usual vengeful spirit inhabiting some hidden space (this case a done before closet). 3. A child is the object of the spirit's attention who also happens to be a child. A stuffed toy as prop, of course. 4. Brief appearances by said spirit-child to possess the human child & bring her into the spirit world. 5. A bit of newspaper digging brings up past child disappearances. 6. A spirt hunter cartoonishly shows up & brings the usual electrical magnetic field detectors to locate spirits, but as any high school student will tell you they're only good at telling you that electricity is in the house - duh! 7. Usual circle of candles w/drumming, chants, and ancient textbook showing pictures of nasty spirits.

South Korean horror movie, The Closet reminds me of the story, Battle Royale. Where parents turn to desperate and inhuman solutions due to hardships of the economy in a sick society that has leeched all compassion and joy out of life... and the innocents who pay the price.

I would say this is a so-so average korean horror film, I have watched better ones before. But I am definitely IMPRESSED by the child actress Kim Shi-A who portrayed the role of Myung-Jin. Just as I was about to rate this movie a 6/10, I realised it wouldn't do her justice after watching her performance during the 2nd half of the movie. Of course Ha Jung-Woo is already an established actor, but seeing a kid (Kim Shi-A) giving such impressive performance, it's really kudos mann...