Bangkok Haunted

I saw this movie long time ago about in December,2001 ,that day is the first day which this movie showing. I was very excited to see this movie because before this movie show in the theater it's very popular in Thailand.The trailers of this movie is so scary and creepy ,also it's got a great promotion which support this movie to be famous.When i saw this film,at the first section,"The legend of the arm of a beautiful dancer" I think it seems like a romantic horror.this section is make me feel complicated,I means that if you're not Thai maybe you won't understand what the film want to tell you,and if you don't get in Thai cultural, sometime you maybe feel boring in this section.About the actors in this section,I think the actress in the leading roll is fantastic ,even if this is the first time of her in acting but I think she (Pimmsiree Pimsri) is doing great so I think if i have to give a score to this part I will give it " 7 " points from 10. At the second part," Black magic woman" I think it's pretty bad,I think it's boring ,it's just about sex but I think this section is give us a moral that "You will get what you give".But if you're not Thai ,you won't understand about the legend in this part ;including the process of making the magic oil,and the erries occurences.If i give a point ,I will give it "6.5". At the last section,I love this part the most " revenges" this part is not scary but it's feel weird ,dramatic,sympathy and complicated.Although the actress in leading roll (Kanlayanat Sriboonrueng) is got a little scene but her eyes and emotion is so impressive .if i give a score ,i will give it "9".

I had watched "The Eye" before I watched this one. I really liked "The eye", it was one of the best movies of the recent Asian horror-cinema. So, I picked this "Bangkok haunted" because it was the same director, and it was kind of popular round here. But man, what a disappointment... "Bangkok haunted" are three stories about love, revenge, ghosts, etc. that are no scary at all, not even disturbing (as "The eye" was)... no nothing. I can't even fill the 10 lines required for the comment...

100% boring.

*My rate: 2/10

We have a very strong start as we open upon a story that is sort of like an Asian phantom of the Opera with incest. A young girl and her brother live happily in a small village until one day traveling visitors bring a man the girl starts to fall in love with. Her jealous brother, with a deformed face he always hides, decides to wreak havoc, and the ghost of the young girl gets endowed into a drum that travels the country haunting whoever happens to be close by.

Tthhhheeeeennnn the movie reveals that it's just a story being told, and that three young Thai women at a restaurant are telling each other ghost stories. The thing about these types of narratives is that they fundamentally ruin the point of the stories in the first place. Horror is made to terrify, right? So how can we appropriately fear for characters' lives and souls when we know they're fake? Even beyond the level of fakenss inherent in any medium, we now are twice removed from the characters' psyches: once because we're actually watching a television screen, and twice because we're watching characters tell stories about characters that don't exist diagetically.

Worse, the next two stories turn out to have that wonderful flavor of, "Huh, I've heard variants of this before." Yep, suddenly we move away from the interesting story (which also, interestingly, had much better dialog, direction, cinematography, and just about everything) that held our attentions for 40 minutes, and then we follow two other stories for another hour and a half that are, when you break it down, merely urban legends.

Gee, and I was so enjoying the beginning.

To be fair, the third story isn't THAT bad, and since it's a mystery it's a little nice to follow. But the second story is just soo boring! It's very disappointing to be enjoying yourself and then have the director say, "Okay, so, we're done with that, now to move on!" Two things you should never do in a horror movie because it's no longer fresh and now it becomes slightly insulting: never have it end up being just a dream, and never have it end up being just a story.

--PolarisDiB

I just received a screener of the Panik House DVD for this film, and the packaging is very impressive! I'm happy to report that the movie and the extras are every bit as impressive as well. This is an omnibus film co-directed by Oxide Pang, who along with brother Danny, directed THE EYE and BANGKOK DANGEROUS. There are three stories (told by three young women in a Bangkok Cafe) of horror and the supernatural shot in three distinctly different styles, while each fitting together quite nicely in the end. All of the stories have shocking moments of violence, but are never presented in an exploitive way, as thought the violence on screen is never superfluous and always serves to push the story forward. The first story, "Legend of the Drum" is a tale of murder a nd possession, and according to the "Making Of" featurette, the filming of this segment involved actual unexplainable circumstances, reminiscent of recently disclosed events on the sets of the original Exorcist and Wes Craven's Serpent And The Rainbow. The costume design is incredibly creepy. The second tale, "Black Magic Woman" involves an aphrodisiac, zombified prostitutes, and crazed axe-wielding killer, and may have involved actual cadavers. The third entry, directed by Oxide Pang, "Revenge" is the real payoff, and has a very original story structure and the best multi-level police procedural drama this side of CSI. Pete Thong-jeur gives a realistic and believable performance as a young detective convinced that a possible suicide is a case of murder, and the victim's spirit visits him throughout the investigation with ghastly consequence. The wrap-up is among the most original I've ever seen, and I'm going to run out and buy anything else with Oxide's name on it after this. The disc has a ton of extras. In addition to the documentary, there are trailers, a Pang Brothers bio written by Psychotronic Video Guide's Art Black (who also wrote the Thai Cinema Essay) and a lengthy still gallery. Oh yeah, it comes with a sticker, too. Great film, great disc.

Three women are telling three unrelated ghost stories in Bangkok Haunted.

First `Legend of the Drum ` about a modern girl receiving by mistake an old drum and spirits showing her what happened to a beautiful dancer and a deformed guy whose not corresponded love for the girl ends up with tragic consequences. Second `Black Magic Woman' about a women so desperate for love that he resources to some magic lotion, not knowing it is made with dead people fluids, and kill those to whom it was applied.

Last and not least `Revenge' about a cop investigating the dead of a beautiful woman was nothing is what it seems. This one is the most complex and twisted of the group; also the one with less chills.

The first two parts were directed by Pisut Praesangeam and the last one by Oxide Pang Chun (creator of The Eye); it is easy to notice different styles, but there are some common elements on all of them, keeping an unity, atmosphere and an average quality on the whole movie. The camera work and character development are very interesting. The acting is acceptable.

Ghost appear everywhere, every time; but most of the time as part of the background, not relating with the characters. This creates some gratuitous but welcome chills in the spectator, compensating the overall slowness of the movie. Yes; pace is quite slow, and is not an horror movie in the standard sense; so those looking for gore or violent images will be somewhat disappointed, however this is not a psychological thriller either; blood and some violent killings or rotten bodies sporadically happen but never in a `Friday 13th' excess.

Conclusion: This is not gore, terror intensive Evil Dead nor a quiet 6TH Sense or The Others; it will not give you the creeps but will intrigue you enough to keep you in your seat for two hours and ten minutes.