I was not aware that I was sitting down to watch a horror anthology, as I opted to sit down and watch "Haunted Universities 3". I happened to stumble upon the movie by sheer luck, and given my love of all things horror and the Asian cinema at large, of course I had to sit down and watch the movie.
Given my love of Asian horror, then I have indeed watched the 2009 "Haunted Universities" and absolutely loathed it, and also the 2022 sequel "Haunted Universities 2nd Semester", which was a below mediocre experience. So I didn't really harbor much of any grand expectations to the third installment in the franchise.
While the storyline in the first segment, which is titled "Procession", certainly was a stereotypical one, even for a Thai horror story, then there was just something about it that worked. I found this story to be interesting and nicely directed. It captures the essence of the Thai horror cinema quite nicely, as it is a mixture of traditional Thai culture and a modern take on the horror genre. The effects in "Procession" are good, and they definitely add something to the overall enjoyment of the storytelling. Despite the fact of me not being familiar with the cast ensemble in the first storyline, I will say that the acting performances were good.
"The Caretaker" is the second segment in the anthology, and I have to say that the storyline here utterly fell short of entertaining me. It was a swing and a miss, and the narrative was rather slow paced, and without much of anything interesting happening or an interesting character gallery, it just was not easy to get swept away by this story. Sure, the acting performances in this segment were good, but without a properly interesting storyline, it just was an uphill battle for the actors and actresses.
The third segment is titled "The Invisible Shrine", and it was at least a notch up from "The Caretaker", but it just never reached "Procession" in terms of entertainment value and storytelling. Sure, this third segment was watchable, but it just wasn't outstanding. Again, as in the previous two segments, the acting performances are good, no doubt about that.
The anthology is labeled as a horror comedy, and that is what I thought I was getting into. But "Haunted Universities 3" has no comedy elements to it. It is a horror anthology, pure and simple.
Watchable, for sure, but I found that "Haunted Universities 3" was a very mundane and forgettable Thai horror anthology. And it is definitely not one that will grace my screen a second time.
My rating of "Haunted Universities 3" lands on a four out of ten stars.
