Quando a Morte Sussurra

A family living in a farm is struck with supernatural occurrences which coincide with one member getting sick. The story's structure, like the other commenters said, is typical, even the personalities of some of the characters. That's not necessarily bad, but the film has to have strong details to make it unique from the others in the genre, not to mention cohesive storytelling--and that's where the film missed the mark.

Folk horror films rely heavily on the legend, and this legend has to be explained, especially if the film makers intend to screen it internationally. The legend of the antagonist on this film was just scratched on the surface, and the "rules" were sketchy. Too much exposition is bad but it should be enough for the viewers to understand how things really work. We didn't get that here. Maybe on the sequel?

From the first third of the film, there were already disconnects. There were reactions from characters that were out-of-place; sometimes they reacted too much considering what they only knew, sometimes they said things too early. It's like there were deleted scenes or maybe misplaced ones.

The acting in this film was mixed. One actor was great but there were some who I don't know if they just chose to act that way or the film makers told them to. One character looks overly concerned at times while one character was often nonchalant. I'm not sure if it was meant to be comedic but it made me laugh, I thought it was a horror-comedy film. That's a minus for the atmosphere.

There were also too many characters. That two-hour run time should have been used to flesh out the legend, give more time to the antagonist rather than give dialogue to characters that were hardly used.

The positive on this film is it had creepy moments scattered across those two hours. It had a nice opening scene, the antagonist was scary, the characters are likable, and early on I thought it had the potential to be like 2021's The Medium; however, the insufficient legend information, and the confusing storytelling and atmosphere made this film a wasted opportunity.

I should be giving this film a 6 if not for the big contradictory information it had. There were two contradicting statements made about a character. It's an important detail in the mystery so it's surprising it went unchecked. I'm hoping the sequel is better.

The movie is about a family in a remote village where they grow and sell shallots. The family members have just-out-of-the-salon hair and pretty stylish way of talking and walking. They no way looked like they belonged to that village. Yeah, good looks sell, but it must make some sense. Simply ridiculous. This just ruined the whole movie.

Chris hemsworth was in madmax, but the makeup, hairstyle everything made it look like he belonged there. The movie makers didnt even care to take any effort to match the look of the actors to the characters they played. So silly and pathetic. Besides that, the movie was ok.

No pun intended - calling a horror movie horrible should be a badge of honor, no? Of course if you watch this, you have to like horror movies - and if you like them, you may be aware of some of the cliches and the traps (story wise) a movie can fall on (or through).

This was quite visceral ... and it does have quite a few scenes that I thought would be "fake" (dream like) scenes ... that actually happened in the movie! I respect that - the effects are really good - though may be a bit too much for viewers who may be sensitive about these things. Know yourself and know your limits - there are way worse (or better?) movies when it comes to violence and blood - but this still has quite a few gruesome scenes.

What I did not know: there seems to be a sequel ... I reckon that makes sense .... I might even watch it, once it arrives at Netflix.

Plus points:

• Very good-looking actors, ok use of sound
• The film itself is a no-brainer, therefore, suitable for average audience looking for pure entertainment

Minus points:

• Awkward interaction between characters as a family.

• The acting is almost too obvious
• Tee Yod regurgitates every element of a stereotypical horror movies, especially the overwhelming number of jump-scares. The film is generic as a result.

• Weak scriptwriting - no intensification, easy problem-solving throughout which renders the film ending extremely frustrating.

• Horrible visual effects
• A lot of underdeveloped characters
• The film fails to accentuate the power of the villain, thereby the devil seems to be an insane person rather than a transcendental entity.

As another reviewer already mentioned, this movie feels a little like the Thai version of Evil Dead. The production value is obviously not as high, and I don't even want to compare the two. However, I had a decent time with this horror movie and thought it had a few genuinely well-crafted scares.

There are also lots of cheap jump scares, and the effects look a little poor at times, but it wasn't too distracting to the point of breaking immersion. The characters and dialogue were a little wonky at times, and the premise is nothing too original. However, the movie is crafted with passion and has a really dark atmosphere and provides some nice moments for fans of gore.

It ends with a big cliffhanger leading into the second part, which has already been released. Because of this, it works much better as a double feature, as the ending of this movie alone felt quite unsatisfying.

Overall, it's a decent horror movie from Thailand, and I enjoyed the majority of it, though I think the runtime could have been trimmed a little for a smoother narrative [5.9/10]