Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Year: 2021
Country: Thailand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Possession
Plot:
Followed by a film crew, the psychic medium of a remote section of Thailand being documented uncovers enough evidence to realize her niece is the target of a supernatural attack and tries to save her, but as it continues finds herself confronted by a darker and more malicious spirit than she anticipated.
Review:
While there’s quite a lot to like, this one does come off as slightly disappointing. Where it is best is the setup, offering the kind of real-world grounding required for a story like this one. Since the initial introduction here is on her abilities and spiritual connection to the Gods of the area and how she treats those who need it, there’s a fantastic understanding of how strong her connection to that realm is. By understanding that connection this clearly, the later focus on the family members who are suddenly coming under attack by the various supernatural maladies on the daughter comes into greater focus, from the behavioral shifts ranging from sudden quietness to overtly flirtatious and outgoing, defensive attitudes about strangely impersonal objects and the discomfort felt around the family. Given that all of this is shot like a found-footage effort by the documentary crew following the psychic brings a real-world approach that’s not over-sensationalized or grandiose which helps the film tremendously.
Once the setup is in place, the film provides a lot of fun with the realization that she has to use her powers to help the possessed daughter. Having gathered a series of clues not just from those behavioral changes and outbursts but also much more in the wake of how we’re told they came together leading to that conclusion, the tension and action ramp up considerably as her condition has been revealed and the outbursts turn violent including the shower attack or the beatdown with the video camera during a ritual ceremony leading to a far more intense and suspenseful second half. The attempts at using her own powers as a means of controlling and figuring out what’s going on have a fine localized flair that involves several rituals and the realization that they’ve been deceived all along, the race to uncover the truth about what’s possessing the daughter and free her from its grasp results in some fascinating ritualistic work. The final exorcism itself, a massive outpouring of dark magic rituals and ceremonial preparations in several fine scenarios throughout here, is chilling and somewhat shocking to witness, making for a highly effective and enjoyable effort.
While there’s a lot to like, this one does fall short somewhat. Most of them come in the form of an overly complicated story that tries to do more than it should. While the early focus is on grounding the life of everyone in the area so that the terror is that much more palpable, things progress beyond an obvious point that something should be done quite early and often. Several instances of encounters at her work, numerous bizarre videos showing how she interacts with others in the community and all the socially distant behavior around the family are more than enough to suspect something has gone wrong, however, it takes until the physical attacks on the family to even confront her about something going wrong. From there, the revelation about the former boyfriend who died recently haunting her that turns into a red herring for the ancestral curse being the cause of the possession is unnecessary. This explanation comes way too late in the film to mean anything with no build-up following the evidence we’ve gathered so far, leading to too many plot points and storylines to keep track of than what should be the case.
The other issue here is that far too much of this one feels like excess that could've been trimmed down and taken out. There's little need for the film to touch over two hours in running time with this kind of storyline as the repeated use of ideas and concepts depicting her as being possessed come off as being repeated frequently enough that the idea's made clear enough only to keep going with the concept. Likewise, the finale is excessively overlong with way too many things happening which spells out doom for all involved. The horrific activity at the exorcism site, with the numerous possessions, torture being inflicted on the crew, and the remaining helpers scrambling to get away once they realize they're in peril is incredibly chilling in execution but going on way too long when combined with the activity at the house with the possessed daughter taking place at the same time. While getting the point across and certainly being fun in its own right, these could've been trimmed down and smoothened the running time but are thankfully not serious enough to hold this down that much.
Overview: ****.5/5
Granted with an impeccable atmosphere, a fun concept, and more than enough scares to offset the minor drawbacks featured here, this one emerges as one of the finest films in the genre if kept from reaching the highest status due to those minor drawbacks. Fans of Asian horror, spiritual exorcism films, or the past work of the creative crew will highly enjoy the film while viewers turned off by the running time might be the only ones to heed caution here.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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