Ghost of Mae Nak

OK, last night me and some friends were on our monthly Horror-night, where we usually watch 2 Asian movies and an American one. So there we were, 7 people in quite the mood I might add, with popcorn, chips and beer, therefore no matter how bad this one would turn out to be, the fact that we were together made it impossible for it to fail: BUT IT DID !!

Dear God it failed so bad! In the first 2 minutes you get a glimpse of what they call the ghost, well, the girls called it "Whaaat?" while us, the guys were more like "Well she's kinda hot, except for that hole in her forehead!". Didn't quite know how to take the film cause we knew not if it takes itself seriously or wants to be more of a dark comedy. Well turns out, that it really tried taking itself seriously which is sad actually, because it did manage to provide some good laughs but in the bad way, cause it had no intend for such a thing.

I could go on and on with the plot, character development, "over-the-top" death scenes but I would only waste your time trust me on this one. Only good thing about this movie is that the special effects reminded us all about Mario and what a great game that is. I really miss Mario! Oh wait, this comment is about the movie. OK, summary:

STAY AWAY! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

The legend of the ghost of Nang Nak is a part of Thai folklore, the story of an 19th Century 'angry ghost' who lived in a bucolic palm-fringed village outside of Bangkok named Pra Khanong..

By 2005, Pra Khanong is part of the dirty old metropolis, the giant grey concrete slab of Bangkok. No longer a place for a rural ghost.

I have never even been there - there's no compelling reason to go. It is ten minutes from where I live, but it is just another part of inner city urban blight nowadays.

This movie works because it treats Bangkok not as a glitzy tourist venue, full of pachyderms, tuk tuks, ladyboys and long-tail boats, but a functioning, ordinary, third-world city in which regular Thai people live with limited budgets and modern fears.

Into this is transported a semi-Gothic, semi J-Horror story, that derives from the old mythology.

Thai movies are often unsophisticated, self-referential and burlesque. This one doesn't fall into that trap, perhaps because it is Directed by a Westerner and doesn't play to stereotype.

I liked it.

There are so many things that went wrong in this movie that it's hard to find any redeeming factors. This is complete garbage and a massive waste of time.

The ghost was one of the most pathetic attempts at horror I've ever seen. The special effects were cringe-worthy and the acting was over the top in a laughable attempt to make us empathize with the characters. The actors simply recited their lines, which often consisted of redundant information we heard ten times before in the movie. We hear the same lines over and over again. Apparently the scriptwriter thought we need to have the most obvious information spelled out for us, and then repeated some 100 times in case we forgot.

The story, while not horrible, was uninspired, paper-thin and full of plot holes you could see from a mile, while the plot progression and pace were mostly non-existent. Nothing ever happens in this movie except for some Final Destination inspired deaths. Characters appear and then disappear without ever knowing what happened to them or why they were in the movie at all, in an effort to increase the body count. It's nothing you've never seen before, but this takes the cake for bad execution of an average story.

The only thing that might incite some interest might be the good insight into the traditions and legends of Thai culture. The movie sure takes its time to illustrate some rituals and ceremonies, but by then you'll surely be too bored to even care.

It baffles me that people have found this movie to be more than average. I decided to watch it based on the relatively good reviews on this site, but now I must say it's among the worst movies I've seen in the Asian horror genre or Asian cinema for that matter. Avoid like the plague!

The synopsis and the DVD cover to this movie does have a certain appeal, and it does give you some sense of hope and expectation to the movie. However, don't get your hopes up too high.

For a horror movie, then "Ghost of Mae Nak" is fairly slow and anything but scary, bordering on being overly predictable at times. Plus there are random scenes where the ghost is shown and then they just cut to some other scene, leaving you clueless as to what happened after the ghost appeared, and also raises a big question mark as to why people wouldn't be scared out of their pants after having seen a ghost that up close and personal.

The story told in "Ghost of Mae Nak" is about an ancient tale of love between Mae Nak and Mak. And oddly enough, it today's time, there is a young couple in love with similar names Nak and Mak. It is said that the ghost of Mae Nak will come between anyone who would stand between her and her true love.

I will say that the storyline itself is adequate, although there are no scares at any times throughout the movie. Plus it also becomes rather predictable at times. The movie was suffering from an overhanging sense that no one was really scared given their predicament and situation, which made the movie have an approach which just lead to you not really buying that much into it.

As for the special effects, well they were there, and they were adequate. Not top of the line Hollywood blockbuster effects, but effective enough and doing what they are supposed to do.

There was a single turn of events that I hadn't seen coming. Without saying what it was, it is towards the end of the movie, at the temple scene. It was actually a nice touch, but it didn't manage to pull up the overall enjoyment of the movie as a whole.

The idea with the bone amulet was a nice touch to the movie, though, I will say that much.

For a Thai ghost and horror movie, then "Ghost of Mae Nak" is a fairly standard movie, that offers nothing new to the genre, nor does it hold any scares or overly spooky moments. If you enjoy Thai and Asian horror (and ghost) movies, then there are far better movies available.

Siwat Chotchaicharin is a very good actor in this movie. It is custom that if spirits like this show up its because they are there to to protect you. Good scary movie and the English subtitles are good for learning English.