Kim Nam-gil Delights in Horror Film, The Closet

If you know me at all, then you know I'm not one for horror films. I'll concede that being freaked out by a movie is an interesting, exhilarating feeling, but I prefer getting eight hours of peaceful sleep every night and not glancing back at my mirror every five seconds to make sure nothing odd is going on in the reflection, thank you very much. That being said, I've wanted to watch The Closet (2020) ever since I first saw the poster and viewed the trailer — and of course because Kim Nam-gil is such a fun actor and who wouldn't want to watch something he's in? Even so, I put it off for several months, because again, sleep. Eventually I gave in though, and smartly had the new Scooby Doo film lined up to watch afterwards since comedy is a brilliant foil for horror.

The premise of The Closet is a man and his daughter move to a new house in what seems to be the middle of nowhere (nothing new here). He doesn't know how to deal with his daughter without his wife, and so for the most part, the two ignore each other. The father is so uncomfortable with things that he considers sending his daughter off to a boarding school to help her acclimate to, well, her new life. Enter: the freaky closet in the child's room.

I don't typically watch horror without a good reason, and right now that reason for me is Kim Nam-gil (he plays a "ghostbuster" character that has a cool backstory that ties him closely with the main plot). Not only is he brilliant, but also his humor is the main reason I enjoyed this. I was fully prepared to be bored by this movie - I typically go in with low expectations - but to my delight, I loved it! One of my favorite things about Korean horror is that it tends to be less scary than American horror, in my opinion. Additionally, Korean horror often brings the supernatural horror aspect back to the horror that is humanity, which gives a lot more depth to the film and also hopefully means I'm not thinking about ghosts for the next three months after watching the film.

So I watched the film, was a tad scared despite playing it in broad daylight, keeping distance between myself and the screen, and making sure the door of my room was wide open, but everything was fine because I watched Scoob! after and laughed at all the corny jokes. A week passes, and I'm completely okay. Hooray, I think to myself, I watched a wonderful horror movie and survived without side effects. Then day eight comes along...and there's the nightmare. Cue sleeping with the chromecast on and jumping at shadows for the next couple days.

But I call it a success, considering I was only frightened for about three days instead of three months. The movie was such fun that I'd do it all over again too, short-term consequences notwithstanding.