I love creepy kids and emo drama, so this movie has a lot of elements that I loved. The downside is that the story is pretty standard for a supernatural mystery, and drags unnecessarily at times. I never even heard of this movie before it popped up on Shudder, but based on good reviews on that site I was immediately intrigued. Although I didn't love "The Closet" as much as I thought I would I can see why others may have liked it more. I've seen so many creepy kids and haunted house movies that the tropes in this were at times way too familiar and predictable. I still appreciated the themes around how we treat and see children and Heo Yool was phenomenal as Yi Na, which kept me engaged from the start.

Heo Yool is the standout but the entire cast is good, including Ha Jung Won as Sang Won, the depressed and overwhelmed dad of Yi Na. I definitely empathized with his character but he was so low-key at times that certain situations didn't feel as heightened as they could have been. Despite many good performances, not many seemed memorable, but there is a great cameo from Park Sung Woong who I thought was perfectly disturbing. I think maybe trying to play things more real and subtly just made the pace feel slower. Also, some of the lightly comedic moments didn't help the mood and felt pretty "meh".

Would I watch this again? I think I would. I'm curious about what details I may have missed. The story gets super explanatory in the middle, which wasn't very engaging the first time watching, but maybe knowing the ending would make some of those parts more interesting.

Overall, "The Closet" is way more haunting and tragic than scary, The ending and its message are what make this movie memorable. In a lot of ways, this is a very basic creepy-kid-haunted-house-ghost-with-a-grudge-story that delivers what is expected. It has a few clever and intense scenes and some great disturbing imagery, but it was never intense enough to actually make me scared. If you think of it more as a supernatural melodrama about a father and daughter's relationship after a tragedy you may be able to enjoy this drama more than if you expect a true horror movie. Yes, the story could have been more concise and I didn't feel as emotionally connected as I could have, but it is still a movie worth watching for fans of this genre. I'm glad I found out about this movie. I wasn't moved to tears but I was moved.