Bangkok Haunted

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.

Three young women gathered in a coffee bar in Bangkok tell and discuss three original ghost stories with each other:

1) The Ancient Drum: In Bangkok, the young Jieb receives an ancient drum not listed in the order from the truck of Transportation Company owned by Mr. Anake. She calls her former Professor Arkom, who identifies the markings for good luck that she describes and tells the story of the orphan Paga. In 1917, the renowned music teacher Jangwah-Chuem and his wife Peng raise the beautiful Paga with their deformed son Gnod. Paga is a good and loving sister and daughter and becomes a great beautiful dancer. When Paga falls in love for the handsome Fond, the jealous Gnod and she vanish from their village. Jieb investigates the mystery of their disappearance and discloses the eerie truth with tragic consequences.

2) The Love Potion's Price: The gorgeous Pam receives a sample from her next-door neighbor of a love potion ("Ply Essence") that makes the user irresistible to men. Pam does not know that the essence is made of blood of dead women and uses in a man in a night-club, who becomes an insatiable lover. When she uses in her acquaintance Tim, she finds the price of the aphrodisiac.

3) The Revenge of the Dead: Detective Nop is in charge of the investigation of the death of a woman called Gunaya found hanged in a distant storeroom. He does not accept his chief position of suicide and he is convinced that it is a murder case. He investigates the husband of the victim, Vinal, and her former boy-friend In. When he believes he has solved the case, there is a twist with tragic consequences.

I am a great fan of the Pang brothers and I liked "Bangkok Haunted". The first tale has a promising beginning, an excellent development and a disappointing conclusion. It is funny that the three friends make the same comment in their conversation. The second tale is creepy, in spite of the lack of explanations about the love potion. The last one has a promising beginning, an excellent development, but I was confused about the relationship of Gunaya with Nop. I understand that she has plotted revenge against her abusive husband; her cruel lover, but it was not clear for me how was her connection with Nop. I intend to revisit the last minutes of this story to check if I have not seen any important detail. The DVD is spoken in Thai with English subtitles and I need to pay too much attention reading the lines. The surprising conclusion, showing how haunted Bangkok is, is excellent. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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.

I thought the movie was fantastic. The scares weren't over-the-top at all; neither were they overused. Some horror fans will be disappointed by the lack of many, but I thought that when the scares DID come, they were fantastic. Oxide and Pisuth definitely know when to utilize a scare within a certain scene and I thought this movie was just overall, amazing. Great stories, good endings, and awesome cinematography.

The only negative that I can give is that the stories were slightly confusing, but definitely not impossible to understand. And characters are used over and over again in different stories, so it was sort of hard to follow characters when they were someone else in a different story. But like I said, another watch-through, and it cleans up all the loose ends. This movie would definitely be useful to watch during a night with some friends over, so that discussion can follow and clear up what you missed. Awesome movie, but don't expect many scares--just like 28 Days Later, this serves as more of a drama horror film, rather than a true horror one.

For an Asian movie about hauntings, then "Bangkok Haunted" was quite dull and anything but scary, actually. And this is an anthology of sorts, as the movie contains three different stories - all of which, mind you, are nowhere near impressive or scary.

The first story is about Jieb who receives an ancient drum from a shipping company, although she didn't order it. The drum is tied to a tragic story where a young dancer named Paga falls in love with Fond. And while a misshapen man named Gnod loves her, and doesn't have his love returned, he sort to a final, drastic measure to keep her with him. This story was actually the best of the three, but it wasn't particularly impressive in itself.

The second story is about Pan, a woman who will do anything to find real love. Finding out about a strange essence that her neighbor uses to lure in men, Pan decides to give this a try. Little does she know that the essence is created with the blood of the recently departed. And those under the influence will come back from the dead if they die while under its charms. This story was adequate, but just didn't really make much sense.

And the third and final story is about a police officer who is investigating a case of a hung woman, which he believes is suicide and not murder. Well, this turned out to be more of a love story than an actual ghost story.

Overall, then "Bangkok Haunted" is fairly weak and doesn't even remotely have the usual level of horror and scares founds in Thai horror movies. And if you enjoy these kind of anthologies, then there are far better choices available on the movie market.

I like how the movie has this branded on the DVD cover: "eerie and disturbing, each one of these stories is sure to curdle your blood and chill your spine..." Right, indeed, I guess the one who wrote that haven't watched particularly many Thai horror movies if he or she found these three stories to be blood curdling and spine chilling.