Door Lock (2018) – Korean Movie Review

Door Lock 도어락

Directed by: Lee Kwon (이권)

Starring: Gong Hyo-jin (공효진) , Kim Ye-won (김예원), Kim Sung-oh (김성오), Jo Bok-rae (조복래), Lee Ga-seob (이가섭)

Review: Door Lock is a new Korean thriller film about an ordinary woman named Gyeong-min (Gong Hyo-jin) whose life becomes intruded upon by an unwelcome and mysterious figure. Gyeong-min does have a secure electronically locking door at her apartment but becomes concerned after noticing that the keypad on her lock is opened when it should have been closed. And then one terrifying night, someone from outside her room suddenly begins fiddling with the door knob while banging on the door and punching in random numbers on the key pad frantically trying to get inside her room, and then suddenly vanishes.

Without giving away some of the creepier details regarding the film’s intruder, the audience is aware from early on that someone clearly has access to Gyeong-min’s room without her permission. However, Gyeong-min isn’t fully aware of the extent of this intrusion until she’s forced to do some investigative work of her own along with the help of her best friend and coworker Hyo-joo (Kim Ye-won), and the two girls lives are put in great danger as they get closer and closer to learning the identity of the intruder.

Door Lock succeeds in playing into the real world insecurities that (predominantly) women feel and experience in daily life due to the constant potential for threat upon them from the (often) physically imposing and (unfortunate) predatory nature of the opposite gender. The character of Gyeong-min, heightened by the fact that she lives alone, is not once shown to feel 100% secure even within the confines of her own home. From her late night walks home from work, whether there is a man walking behind, beside, in front or in the same elevator with her, even the thought of getting into a taxi cab alone, she’s always cautiously anxious at the thought of potential harm being done to her.

So Door Lock as a whole appears to be tailored more towards female audiences in this sense. At least for me, and coming from a (fairly) confident man’s perspective, the idea of someone breaking into my home and doing me harm is without a doubt unsettling, but it just doesn’t hold the same level of threat it would to a woman living alone. So while I can absolutely sympathize with the terror Gyeong-min feels in Door Lock as some mysterious figure (presumed to be male) torments her with privacy violations of the highest degree, I just could not feel the same kind of fear and creep factor that I predict more female viewers will have when watching this film.

Even more to this point of gender division, Door Lock portrays Gyeong-min to be living in a kind of Hell world where virtually every single man in her life poses either a potential or imminent threat to her. From her overbearing male boss at the bank she works in…to a male superior who like a knight in shining armor comes to her rescue at one point but not without hints of a concealed ulterior motive…to the male police officers who make light of her report that perhaps someone dangerous is trying to get into her room, every male character in Door Lock is cast in a very poor light.

Even when Gyeong-min and her friend Hyo-joo joke around about finding a man to get married to and live securely with, literally the first guy she tries to flirt with turns out to be a major problem and becomes yet another threat to her. This overt portrayal of a world divided by gender could possibly be something that also divides viewers. For me, it was slightly helpful in highlighting some of Gyeong-min’s vulnerabilities but I’d rather it not have been taken to the scale it reaches in Door Lock.

The performances in Door Lock are indeed excellent. One can’t really ask for a better performance than what Gong Hyo-jin gave for a film like this. The desperation and terror Gyeong-min feels as she fights for her life to rid herself of her tormentor are very well expressed. Gong Hyo-jin is able to communicate volumes even through some of her more subtle facial expressions. And while I feel that it was uncharacteristic of the character Gyeong-min to embark on several little frightening expeditions of her own as she takes matters into her own hands, actress Gong Hyo-jin does an excellent job at portraying these slight to extreme levels of uneasiness that I’m sure many women can especially relate to.

Two other standout performances come from supporting cast members Jo Bok-rae & Kim Sung-oh. Kim Sung-oh as one of the police officers in Door Lock and coming off his very memorable performance as the villain in Unstoppable, inches himself even further up the totem poll of my favorite working actors.

Overall, while Door Lock does its job fairly well, it fails to separate itself from the ever growing pack of average to above average thriller films. And with the title of the film being Door Lock, one would have hoped that the film could at least bring into question the use of electronic door locks and their general level of safety, with of course the ultimate slam dunk being that we would never be able to look at door locks the same way again…I predict that most will not change their views on door locks by the film’s end.

Door Lock is a home intruder movie with elevated levels of creepiness in regards to the extreme lengths the film’s villain is actually willing to go to and whose identity and motive are withheld upfront in order to add to the film’s overall intrigue. So while I can recommend the film as a slightly above average thriller worth checking out, keep expectations for Door Lock at a minimum for maximum enjoyment.