South Korean scares as Vancouver Asian Film Festival opens Halloween night with The Closet

Consider it the latest contender from a country that’s a legit force in horror movies

The Vancouver Asian Film Festival streams The Closet on October 31 at 7 pm.

CREEPY CHILDREN, check. Ghosts, check. An exorcist, check. The Vancouver Asian Film Festival has all the ingredients for the perfect film to open its event on Halloween night.

Kicking off the fest that runs till November 9 is South Korea’s The Closet, by up-and-coming director Kim Kwang-Bin.

After his wife’s death, architect Sang-won (Ha Jung-woo) and his daughter Ina (Heo Yool) move into a new home out in the country to try to heal. But his child starts acting stranger and stranger until… Well, let’s just say there might be a reason kids are afraid of what’s lurking in their closet when they’re trying to go to sleep.

Note that it’s only $10 for you to throw a stay-at-home Halloween viewing party of The Closet with your bubble besties; a pass for all of VAFF’s offerings is $50.

Note that South Korea has emerged as a major force in Asian horror movies, regularly scaring the crap out of people with stylish, revenge-fuelled fare like Thirst, The Wailing, and Train to Busan. More than enough, in fact, to keep a Halloween viewing party going all night long and into the wee hours.

Articles

Des jours meilleurs takes women in rehab on the drive of their lives, at Alliance Française on July 23

Copresented with Visions Ouest, new comedy mixes unvarnished look at alcoholism with desert adventure

Season 2 of Killjoy Comedy subverts the status quo with laughs, starting July 25

Created by Vancouver’s Shana Myara, docuseries available for streaming on OUTtv.com highlights racialized and queer comedians

To a Land Unknown takes a timely look at what happens when people have nothing left to lose, at VIFF Centre from July 18 to 24

Filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s compelling portrait of two Palestinian refugees trying to escape hardscrabble limbo in an unrecognizable Athens

Film review: In Ghosts of the Sea, filmmaker takes a riveting look back at family tragedies on the waves

In Virginia Tangvald’s haunting new NFB documentary, she unravels the mysteries of a father and brother who lost their lives to the oceans that called them

Film review: Apocalypse in the Tropics’ dissection of Brazilian politics is a chilling warning for the rest of democratic world

At VIFF Centre, Petra Costa’s compelling new documentary ties the rise of right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro into the boom in Christian fundamentalism

The Cinematheque presents Tsui Hark: Everything Is Unreal, July 10 to August 3

Titles in store span Green Snake on opening night and a special co-presentation of Once Upon a Time in China II with the Chinese Canadian Museum

At The Cinematheque, MENA Film Festival presents a timely look at Iran through women's eyes, July 5

Five short films take on deeper meaning against a backdrop of armed conflict and women’s rights struggles

Deckchair Cinema kicks off “Summer of Sci-Fi” with an electrifying farewell from Ziggy Stardust, July 3

With highlights such as “Space Oddity” and “Moonage Daydream”, the 1970s documentary about one of David Bowie’s greatest shows lights up The Polygon Gallery’s series of starlight screenings