2023 · thriller · mystery · crime

Don't Buy the Seller

Directed by Park Hee-kon · 1h 41m · 2023

Soo-hyun, who has recently moved into a new house, buys a used washing machine through a second-hand app but finds out it doesn’t work. Annoyed by the seller’s irresponsibility, she leaves a comment calling the seller a con man, and reports it to the police. Little does she know that the seller is a psychopathic serial killer who uses an online second-hand market to lure his victims. Her comment renders his hunt for a new victim all but impossible so she becomes his next target. She starts receiving obscene phone calls, countless unwanted food deliveries, and strange men knocking on her door looking for a good time. A trip to the sender’s address proves deadly serious when the police and Soo-hyun find a man’s dead body.

Our read: Don't Buy the Seller (2023) reads as a sombre, kinetic, grounded thriller · mystery · crime entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.