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
