Director: Dulyasit Niyomgul
Year: 2014
Country: Thailand
Alternate Titles: Nam Man Prai
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After encountering an old man, a young woman who inadvertently came into contact with a potion he was carrying finds herself slowly turning into a ravenous sexual predator and comes to realize she's been possessed by a deadly spirit constantly seeking such experiences and tries to stop it.
Review:
Overall, this one was a decent enough genre effort. What really tends to give this one a lot of notice is the way it's overt and unabashed erotic nature is meshed within the horror moments. From the beginning, the fact that this one ties in the womans' sexual antics with the more daring supernatural hauntings as the initial sequence of her pleasuring herself is mixed alongside the first appearance of the ghost just before she finishes in a nice shock jump. These hauntings pick up throughout the film after the spiked drink where this picks up considerably in terms of frequency and brazenness of the sexual antics, and the contrast to the scenes of her not being in a state of arousal carries more weight. Openly turning into a ghastly figure following the seduction of her quarry and then viciously killing them for even the slightest indiscretion leaves this one rather blatant about the this through her possession.
Since she's quite unsure of herself in that department already, the fact that others around her who express themselves far more sexually manages to create a daring contrast which is explored well. Her calm and sweet demeanor is expertly conveyed against the open and daring sexually-inhibited figure where we initially see her reserved in her work and at the nightclub before later again openly pleasuring herself in front of her date in the car with her. Compared to the scenes of her sister who is already far more open and free with herself makes for a fine horror outing based on the idea of getting the two into a far more equal ground as evidenced by her later openness to be involved with her boyfriend through the guidance of the spirit. That those are incredibly erotic and sensual creates a welcome experience over the remaining parts of the film which feature far less arousing sequences that truly get worked over nicely by the end where it finally starts in on it's fullest horror based scene of the messy threesome sequence that's exceptionally fun.
While this works well, it is the biggest issue here in that the vast majority of the film doesn't play off as horror for the most part, even being aware of the girls' condition which turns up so sporadically there's not much to be said about the type of format this one offers. The horror only comes during the eroticism when she turns into the ghoul, so most other times this one offers little else that would offer itself up in that genre which makes the film dull and dragging in spots, a truly deadly combination for a film this short. As a large section of the film is taken up by trying to understand who she is and why she's like this, a great idea would've been to have had the spiritualist come in and explain it better other than offering the few bits and pieces we get as he's wasted sitting around doing nothing like he is. Otherwise, there's a lot to like here.
Overview: ****/5
There's a lot to like here with this one, and it definitely works nicely as a fun, erotically-charged horror effort with some nice horror elements thrown into the mix. Granted, it does have some minor issues to be had here, but mostly this one has enough to like for fans of the style to look into here while those that don't find this particular type of effort enjoyable should heed caution.
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