This horror anthology features four Thai-flavoured ghost stories, only slightly related to one another. The first story, “Happiness” has Maneerat Kham-uan playing an adorable, but lonely girl who is confined to her apartment due to a leg injury. Bored and lonely, she spends most of her time online or texting. She’s chatted up by a stranger, whose interest she unwisely indulges. Then he tells her he’s coming over…and then the lights mysteriously go out.
The second story, “Tit for Tat”, involves a bullied school kid who exacts his revenge on his tormenters via voodoo/witchcraft, and even those who stood by and watched are not spared the wrath.
“The One in the Middle” sees four rather nerdy young friends on a rafting trip, who, whilst sharing a tent at night, tell each other scary stories. And wouldn’t you know it? One of their stories appears to have come true! Needless to say, they’re a bit freaked out, and their friendship is tested.
“Last Fright” sees a Thai flight attendant sharing a flight with the foreign Princess whose husband she is sleeping with. The scorned Princess ends up dead due to an allergic reaction to shrimp, and that’s when the fun really starts.
This collection of four short ghost stories from a quartet of Thai writer-directors isn’t bad at all. Like almost all horror anthologies, not all of the stories are good, and the ghost motif isn’t quite enough to bring these different stories together. However, for the most part, this is quite watchable stuff. The first tale (“Happiness”) deals with a ghostly online predator, and logic issues aside it’s pretty damn creepy. It’s a little dopey and gets to be a bit “One Missed Call” at times, but I have to admit that it made me jump. The finale in particular nearly had me banging my head on the ceiling. The director (Youngyooth Thongkonthun) knows their stuff, turning off all the lights except the light emanating from a mobile phone that also comes with a creepy vibrating ringtone. The camerawork is also rather slick and lead actress in the segment (Maneerat Kham-uan) is adorable, playing a sort of younger Thai female version of Jimmy Stewart in “Vertigo” at times.
The second story “Tit for Tat” is the worst by a mile. It’s an almost unbearable high school bullying/revenge tale shot in an overly-edited, jerky style that seems like the cameraman is having an epileptic fit. As such, it was hard for me to focus on anything on screen. The girls are cute, but the FX are lame, and it is also totally jarring from the rest of the films in style, tone, and content.
The next story, “The One in the Middle” thankfully manages to get over the fact that its title gives the game away, which bothered me at first. It’s a bit creepy at times, but more importantly, it’s quite funny. The best laughs come at the expense of the scaredy-cat (mind you, they’re all wimps) who seemingly hasn’t seen any movies, including “Titanic”. The only annoying thing about the character is that it results in having at least two film endings ruined. One of which I had thankfully already seen, but I still don’t like spoilers like that in principle. Still, it’s funny, as these guys are all Costello’s, without any Abbott’s. It’s probably the best of the stories, and thankfully eschews the usual J-horror inspired long-haired ghosties. That was a nice change. The twist ending is lame, and we get a third spoiler, though it was one I already knew.
The last story, “Last Fright”, is obvious but fun. This story sadly indulges us in a J-horror ghostie after the previous story wisely avoided the cliché. Still, it’s well-done for what it is, and short enough that the J-horror motifs didn’t bother me much.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Overall, this is far from the worst horror anthology out there, and some of the stories are well done. Shame about that second one, though.
