“The Closet” Theatrical Poster
Director: Kim Kwang-Bin
Cast: Ha Jung-Woo, Kim Nam-Gil, Heo Yool, Kim Si-A, Park Sung-Woong, Shin Hyun-Bin
Running Time: 95 min.
By Paul Bramhall
While the practice of shamanism has always been around in Korean cinema, it was arguably The Wailing that popularised it within the context of the horror genre for a 21st century audience, and 2020’s The Closet was one of many productions post its release in which shamanism plays a central part of the plot. Opening with grainy home video footage from 1998 of a shaman performing a ritual in front of a closet, things turn gruesome when an invisible force possesses her to turn the knife she’s brandishing against herself, slitting her own throat before the footage cuts off. It’s a suitably unsettling opening, even if the way the scene is edited admittedly contradicts the ‘found footage’ nature of what we’re supposed to be witnessing, and sets a foreboding tone for what’s to come.
In present day we meet Ha Jung-woo (Ashfall, Ransomed), an architect and single father raising his 11-year-old daughter after the tragic death of his wife in a car accident. Played by K-drama actress Heo Yool, here making her big screen debut, since the accident she’s become increasingly detached from the world, barely speaking a word and resistant to Jung-woo’s efforts to connect. In an attempt to give her an environment where her condition can improve, he Continue reading
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