I can appreciate the effort but it veers off into nowhere in the second half. It had a cool setup which makes it more frustrating that the conclusion was an awful mess.
Not bad, but feels a bit generic. Nothing to stand out from other similarly-themed horror movies.
Review by MiguelVIP 8BlockedParent2020-06-15T04:33:03Z
“I wanted to make a horror film that can help someone forget about their pain.”
A phenomenal film, Warning: Do Not Play shares more than a passing similarity with The Shining (1980) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Loft (2005). In all three films, the stress of having to produce and the strain on one’s mental health transforms into a supernatural circumstance. In Warning, there is a particular kind of dreamlike logic, initiated precisely by Mi-Jung’s initial waking from a dream in the film’s first scene.
But this film follows a different path than either Kubrick or Kurosawa's film with similar premises (to a lesser extent, this film also shares a bit with Sinister [2012] and Hush [2016]). First, this is a work of urban horror as opposed to the provincial isolation of The Shining or Loft. More importantly, Warning is a film about horror film, maintaining a brilliant streak of self-awareness that puts it in conversation with Behind the Mask (2006) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994).
There's also an unexpected found footage element to the film.
What Jin-won Kim accomplishes here, directing the awesome Seo Yi-Jin as Mi-Jung, is to capture the essence of what appeals about horror film and the challenge true auteurs face when trying to bring to life a vision that has yet to be imagined by any filmmaker before. In his efforts, director Jin-won manages just that.