Nonureva Really Surprised!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Polaris_DiB 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

dbborroughs A collection of three ghost stories: In the first, which plays like a darker Beauty and the Beast, an antique drum ends up in the hands of a young woman who has to work out its secret before things turn deadly.In the second a young woman finds a potion to make her irresistible to men, unfortunately it comes with a price. In the last story a cop won't let go of suicide and finds that not only are things not as they appear, but that he should have left the whole thing alone.Its nice to report that here is a recent vintage Thai horror film that isn't a misfire. Its also a relief not to see yet another Asian horror film with a girl with long hair creeping through every scene. This is a ghost story with a decidedly non western flavor thats a nice mix of old and new horror. I don't know if its scary as such but it certainly creates a bit of tension.Although the stories are of various (but good) quality the only thing thats really off with this movie is the pacing. The films should either have been expanded feature length or shortened to something more manageable since the 40 to 45 minutes of each is just not right for the tales told. I felt alternately that things went on too long for what they were or didn't go on long enough and the film was "neither fish nor foul". However despite my complaint about the lengths I do like the stories which are good enough to keep you watching (actually the stories get better as the film progresses) The performances are good and the effects are excellent, I especially love the faces in the smoke.This is a good movie. If you like horror films, and Asian horror films in particular I think you'll find this worth renting or taking the time to watch if you run across it on cable or satellite.7 out of 10

flickhead 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.

abisio 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.