I feel like this is actually somewhere between a six and a seven, but upgrading it due primarily to the enjoyable buddy cop energy between the frantic father and the exorcist.
The Closet has a feel throughout like a folk tale. It's got plot elements that you might recognize as having seen before in Sinister, Pay the Ghost, and The Hallow. The story begins with a shocking cold open that I won't spoil for you, but I will say that it does a great job of setting the stakes for this movie. Then we cut to the main story line, which concerns a newly bereft father Sang-won, a widower who is trying to figure out how to relate to his grieving young daughter I-na. He screws up at it a lot. Backstory shows that he's an ambitious architect, and his toxic work culture has made him wealthy but also made him a workaholic who neglects his family. I-na's grief and disappointment attracts the attention of a supernatural entity who approaches her from the titular closet. The rest of the movie follows Sang-won's attempts to get her back, with the unlikely help of a scrappy young exorcist who, it turns out, has an ulterior motive. And it's not money, as he would initially have Sang-won and the audience believe.
This is not a jump scare movie, nor is it really a creeping dread kind of ghost story. It's atmospherics are more 'dark fairytale' than 'gothic horror' and the scares are set far apart, although there are a few genuinely frightening scenes that come with almost no warning. It's definitely worth a look if you're in the mood for tale that's not too scary to watch before trying to go to sleep.
The Closet has a feel throughout like a folk tale. It's got plot elements that you might recognize as having seen before in Sinister, Pay the Ghost, and The Hallow. The story begins with a shocking cold open that I won't spoil for you, but I will say that it does a great job of setting the stakes for this movie. Then we cut to the main story line, which concerns a newly bereft father Sang-won, a widower who is trying to figure out how to relate to his grieving young daughter I-na. He screws up at it a lot. Backstory shows that he's an ambitious architect, and his toxic work culture has made him wealthy but also made him a workaholic who neglects his family. I-na's grief and disappointment attracts the attention of a supernatural entity who approaches her from the titular closet. The rest of the movie follows Sang-won's attempts to get her back, with the unlikely help of a scrappy young exorcist who, it turns out, has an ulterior motive. And it's not money, as he would initially have Sang-won and the audience believe.
This is not a jump scare movie, nor is it really a creeping dread kind of ghost story. It's atmospherics are more 'dark fairytale' than 'gothic horror' and the scares are set far apart, although there are a few genuinely frightening scenes that come with almost no warning. It's definitely worth a look if you're in the mood for tale that's not too scary to watch before trying to go to sleep.