Director: Paween Purijitpanya
Year: 2021
Country: Thailand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Working a shift at a local hospital, a pair of friends are convinced they’ve been witness to paranormal activity and set out on a determined quest to find out the truth about the paranormal world, forcing them deeper into a quest that the ghosts in the area aren’t too fond of them discovering.
Review:
Overall, the film is quite a jarring and unsettling film. Much of this is due to a bizarre storyline that favors shifting the tone of the film quite frequently from scene to scene. The initial setup of the two working in the hospital for various altruistic reasons, as one wants to be close to his comatose mother and the other is more interested in the pursuit of the paranormal working there offers him, provides a grounding to the characters early on. However, this melodramatic turn is broken up frequently to show that the two are indeed best friends through the use of childish, immature pranks and pratfalls around the hospital that showcase a decidedly more comedic bent to the presentation. While lighthearted and certainly of the variety that genuine friends would pull on each other, these scenes come off as quite odd when contrasted against the dramatic turns later on. Once they discover the ghosts have been visiting the hospital, all pretenses of comedy are dropped in favor of increasingly melodramatic confrontations between the two, highlighting their descent into psychological madness and devotion to figuring out the truth rather than featuring a straightforward story.
This factor becomes another drawback to the film that holds it back. When the switch occurs, which brings the two into their quest for the truth behind the ghosts that they’ve been seeing, there’s a decided lack of interest in what’s going on that tends to make for a highly problematic and underwhelming feature. Despite turning the film into a series of enthusiastic and thoughtful conversations involving the physics of the situation against the psychological damage the quest is causing him, very little of this becomes interesting as the ghosts completely disappear from the film in favor of these conversations. They’re so infrequent in place of these admittedly spirited debates that it’s entirely possible to be bored during these segments, while the conversations eventually bring a different change to their personalities by offering a highly dispiriting tone that is completely dull to sit through. This series of scenes here with the guys doing their discussions creates a highly dispiriting downgrade against the type of sympathy that had been created beforehand with a series of revelations that we’ve all been aware of for the most part, anyway, that tends to alter our perception of the characters. These factors all combine to lower the film somewhat.
While there are some flaws, the film does have a lot to like about it. Most of these factors are based on the ghostly encounters that showcase the terrifying nature of the ghosts, as their appearances are genuinely shocking. The initial encounter in the hospital utilizes the atmosphere of the darkened hospital to generate some really creepy visuals of the ghosts appearing out of nowhere to generate a sharp, shocking sequence for a rather enjoyable starting point to the hauntings. Later scenes in the corridors of the hospital are just as effective, creating a feeling of genuine tension and terror that escalates nicely with the tension between them during their personal crises, which is a fine cohesive balance. As the final half builds in intensity with the reveal of their purpose for being in the hospital and they get far more active, the energy and intensity pick up nicely with the encounters inside the hospital, which are rather enjoyable overall. There’s also plenty to like with the intensity of the conversations involving their search and the motivations for doing so, which is painted with sympathy that’s filmed quite nicely. Combined with the fantastic ghost make-up that helps their eeriness quite heavily, there are some great elements present here.
Overview: ***/5
Filled with some fantastic ghost action but some big problems elsewhere, this comes off as a highly problematic and flawed, if somewhat watchable, genre effort that has some positive aspects. Viewers who are completists regarding Asian horror films or are undemanding ghost movie enthusiasts will be the primary audience here, while most others who are turned off by the flaws or the approach taken here should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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