ctowyi's Check-Ins

When we sat down at 9:20pm, we were pleasantly surprised that after more than a week the screening is still nearly full-house. Wow!!  Must be the magic of great word-of-mouth.

We were not disappointed. We laughed until stomachache. Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, Alone, 4bia, Phobia 2) is a freaking genius!  This time he used the over-used Nang Nak legend and craft out a comedy-horror fest. Yup, it's comedy first followed by horror.

If you are a fan of the best part of 4bia and Phobia 2, you will find yourself in the familiar company of the four irrelevant dudes. I thought we would be jaded since we are fans of the mentioned anthologies but we were laughing like nuts at all the ingenious situational comedy.  There are also quite a number of pop-culture references like Ang Lee, David Blaine, 300, Last Samurai thrown out at us with gusto.

It did get a bit repetitive in the middle act but the final climatic act in the monastery saved it. Pisanthanakun even brought on the indispensable melodrama then and it managed to surprise me with a nice twist on the legend I know quite well. Pisanthanakun could also balance the movie very well - shifting from comedy to horror in a heartbeat. But he had great help from the 4 actors whose comic timing is just impeccable.