THE CLOSET
Blurb: After losing his wife, a father tries to start over in a new home with his daughter. But things take a turn when strange noises trickle out of the closet, and his daughter goes missing.
Starring:
Ha Jung-woo
Kim Nam-gil
Directed by:
Kim Kwang-bin
Written by:
Kim Kwang-bin
BEN'S REVIEW:
The trope is a familiar one; after a tragedy, a family moves into a house that is in some way haunted. In this case it's a closet, and in the opening "prolog," we see a short video of some type of exorcist who not only fails, but dies. But this is not a found footage movie....
Very soon the father starts hearing all kinds of noises, like a screeching violin, but when he goes to the room where it's all coming from, he finds nothing. But after hearing his daughter, Ina, scream, she begins to act very strange, and then vanishes. I can say that much, because it's in the movie's blurb.
The movie does its job by slowly raising the tension and the best kinds of jump scares, those not thrown in simply to startle you. They actually hint at what's going on. So I appreciated that. I've never been able to appreciate Asian humor though, especially the bungling character, this one who does things like loudly slurp noodles and talk about how "insanely" high his services are worth. I found myself hoping he would get sucked into the closer himself.
I found some of the dialogue a little dorky and I'd be curious if the original Korean is the same, or if that's the translation.
However, there were also some nice twists, not the least seeing Korean cultural differences when it comes to exorcism.
All in all, it's a solid little movie and I liked Iit for the most part and if you like horror films, I recommend you give it a try. Further information if you want to know more...
BEN'S RATING: ☕☕☕☕☕☕☕ X X X
POSSIBLE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:
An exorcist shows up explaining that they only have three days to save our hero's daughter. Similar to the movie Insidious, she has been taken by a demon to "the dark realm." When this happens, there are only 49 days to save the person who has been abducted. The exorcist explains that the living and the dead are side by side at all times, but can't see each other, because there's a barrier separating them. But sometimes the frequencies shift so that those from either side can indeed see each, and those frequencies need to be disentangled in order to save Ina. The father is also warned to never look into the blinded eyes of the children lost in the dark realm, and when a host of them show up in Ina's room, it makes for quite a chilling moment.
HUGE SPOILERS:
It's the twists that saves this movie and elevates it above the 5/10 I was originally giving it. In this case, it all began because a father locked his unwanted daughter in a closet where she died, and then became a demon who stole other unwanted children. Ina was taken because her father had no time for her as his business was far more important than her. But he changes, and with the exorcist's aid, enters the Dark realm to not only rescue his daughter but the original demon, giving her peace, and freeing her to go on to the next plain of existence. In an unusual conclusion for an Asian horror film, we get a happy ending for Ina, her father, and all those the demon took to its dark realm. Everyone gets a happy ending, and for that reason alone I would recommend this movie!
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