Thai Horror Movies

Phobia 2 (5 Prang) Review

April 8, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2009

Directors:
Banjong Pisanthanakun (segment “In the End”)
Visute Poolvoralaks (segment “Ward”)
Paween Purikitpanya (segment “Novice”)
Songyos Sugmakanan (segment “Backpackers”)
Parkpoom Wongpoom (segment “Salvage”)

My short Review: After the slight disappointment that 4bia was, I was not expecting too much from the follow-up Phobia 2, this time with 5 stories from the same directors (with the additon of “Dorm” director Songyos Sugmakanan) and some of the same cast as well.

The first story “Novice“, kind of proved my point with a very boring, poorly directed (IMO) story of redemption. This was by far the weakest segment and was directed by Paween Purikitpanya who was already at the helm of the worst story in 4bia (Tit for Tat). Rating: 3/10

The second story (Ward), directed by first time director but executive producer of most of the biggest recent Thai Horror Movies, Visute Poolvoralaks, elevated the material a little bit but was still too conformist: one creepy ghost with an isolated character in a specific location, here an hospital at night, same s..t different location. Rating: 4/10

At that point I was really starting to worry, but the next segment kind of made up for the first two stories: “Backpackers” from Director Songyos Sugmakanan was a welcome change to the usual ghost stories with the introduction of zombies!! Action packed, short and sweet, perfect timing to get the viewers’ attention back. Rating: 7/10

The 4th story, “Salvage” was a return to a more subtle type of horror with some genuine scares and a good ending (that would never happen in a mainstream hollywood movie) from the writer of Alone and Shutter and director of “last Fright” from the previous opus. Rating: 5/10

Finally, last but not least, “in the end” follows the same cast than “in the middle” in another horror comedy story built around self reference (this segment takes place during a shooting of a typical ghost horror story) where, again, nothing is what it seems. This is by far the strongest short of the whole movie (directed by “alone” and “shutter” director Parkpoom Wongpoom) and it was smart to end Phobia 2 on this high note. A definitive must-see that justifies by itself to watch this sequel. Rating: 9/10

I hope there will be another entry to the Phobia anthologies, and I’m looking forward to the next movies from those talented directors, especially Parkpoom Wongpoom.

My Overall Rating: 6.5/10

4bia (See Prang) Review

April 7, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2008

Directors:
Banjong Pisanthanakun (segment “In the Middle”)
Paween Purikitpanya (segment “Tit for Tat”)
Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (segment “Happiness”)
Parkpoom Wongpoom (segment “Last Fright”)

Synopsis: An anthology with 4 stories. “Happiness” is about a lonely girl exchanging text message with what seems to be a ghost. “Tit for Tat” is about a death curse following a group of high school students. “In the Middle” is about 4 friends going camping and the death of one of them will lead into a funny ghost story. “Last fright” is a classic revenge ghost story inside a plane.

My Short Review:4bia is an anthology movie with 4 segments. The stories are different as is the visual style of each 30mn shorts. There are some tiny connections between all of them (will you find them? ;-))

We start with “Happiness” a simple, yet effective, romantic story between a lonely girl and a lonely guy texting each other. As soon as she realises that it is a ghost at the other end, it’s already too late…Yongyoot Thongkongtoon is not an horror director but he did a good job creating a scary atmosphere around his main character. It was, IMO the strongest (yet the most simple) story and put the movie on the right track. Rating: 6/10

The second short is “Tit for Tat” and immediately I was put off by the visual style and the camera work. I haven’t seen “Body” the feature debut of director Paween Purikitpanya but if it is shot the same way I probably won’t be enjoying it either. On top of that, the story (a bullied student put a curse on the group of kids who beat him up) and the poor special effects make this segment the weakest in my book. Rating: 4/10

The third story, “In the Middle” is directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun who made (together withParkpoom Wongpoom) two of the best Thai Horror Movies of the 2000’s Shutter and Alone. Needless to say I had great expectations. I was actually surprised at the general tone, much less serious than the other 2 segments and very self referential (the characters directly quote/spoil the ending of Shutter). I quite enjoyed the story, it was a fun entry but definitively was lacking in scares from a director specialised in typical scary ghost stories. Rating: 6/10

The last story, “Last Fright” tried to bring the scare/creepy factor up a notch but was almost a total miss for me. The direction made it look like a TV movie, and would have been more suited for an episode of The Twilight Zone (the 80s version). This was another Revenge Ghost Story and brought nothing new to the table. Big disappointment from the writer/co-director of Shutter and Alone. Rating: 4/10

So as usual with this type of movies there were hit and miss but I was definitively expecting a better effort from those directors.

My Rating overall: 5/10

Alone Review

April 4, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Year: 2007

Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom

Synopsis (from IMDb): A Deceased Siamese twin returns to haunt her surviving sister

My Short Review: After having watched Shutter yesterday, I decided to get my hands on as many Thai Horror Movies as I possibly could, starting with Alone which was from the guys who already brought us Shutter,writers and directors Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom.

And my problem with Alone is exactly what made me want to watch it in the first place: it follows too closely on Shutter’s steps without getting close to its level of creepyness or scares.

Alone is another entry into the Revengeful Ghost genre, with a twist that is way too easy to see coming. And when it happens, the last 20mns of the movie turn one of the main character into crazed pshycho killer mode and put aside the supernatural part that made the movie mildly interesting up to that point.

There are some great visual ideas here and there (I won’t soon forget the ceiling fan scene) and the siamese twins love triangle is an original idea, but the scenes with the ghost do not have the impact the ones in Shutter had (this time I did not have one jump scare in the whole movie). As I mentioned before, the end of the movie ended up ruining the film even more for me.

Alone is therefore a slight disappointment, and maybe I would have liked it better had I not just watched Shutter (a superior movie) the day before.

With that being said, I would still consider it a good entry in the Asian Horror Movies category and recommend fans of the genre to give it a chance.

My Rating: 5/10

Shutter (Thai) Review

April 3, 2013 by Eric S. 1 Comment

Year: 2004

Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom

Synopsis (from IMDb): A young photographer and his girlfriend discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after a tragic accident.

My Short Review: I’ve been a big Fan of Japanese Horror Movies since the first time I watched Ringu. I will always remember when Sadako crawls out of the well and out of the TV screen.

Similarly, I will never forget in Ju-On the scene when Kayako crawls down the stairs in the house (especially the sound effects).

It’s quite obvious that those scenes have inspired our directors in their own take of the revengeful asian ghost movie. Shutter is indeed a successful entry into the genre, using the sound effects and each of the ghost apparition with maximum efficiency. The scares are plenty and well timed and Shutter is definitively the best Thai Horror Movie I’ve seen so far (and I plan now on seeing more, especially since I will be moving to Thailand in a few months) and it managed to make me jump on my couch couple of times (not an easy feat).

Shutter’s story is, of course, not very original (ghost revenge, spirit photographs) but has couple of nice little twists and reveals,

Needless to say I strongly recommend Shutter to any fan of asian horror movies, especially if you’re into the whole “ghost with long black hair” genre.

My Rating: 8/10

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