The Closet - Es ruft nach dir

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.

Korean horror movies have been here for a while and if you are aware of that, you probably know they've put out some really good movies. While I would not put this at the top of any list, I still think it is a really good one. Visually speaking but also from a story standpoint. Characters are flawed as they should be and make decisions that are wrong .. in a way.

Again sometimes it is very hard to know what to do - not to mention certain things are ok to happen or should happen so the story is more interesting. And theer is more to this than just the space of the closet ... there's something behind it (no pun intended). This can be a good/frightening time, if you dig it

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.

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.

Korea is fastly becoming one of my favorite countries to produce horror films. Train to Busan is one of my favorite modern horror films and after watching the closet, it's not far behind. It's creepy, well written, well acted and left me in a ball of tears at the end. Highly recommend this film