Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Some of the best horror movies of this young century having been coming out of Thailand. Unfortunately, I wouldn't count Phee sam baht aka Bangkok Haunted among them (even though, at the time of its release, it made more money than all but one of its Thai horror predecessors). What you have here are three stories being told by three young women sitting inside a Bangkok bar. Each vignette strikes its own unique tone and conveys its own peculiar atmosphere, but all share a complete lack of scares, seem to end prematurely, and - most importantly - left me feeling confused to varying degrees.

The first two stories are directed by Pisut Praesangeam. "Legend of the Drum" tells us the story behind an antique drum that comes into the possession of a young antique dealer. There is nothing horrible or scary about it, as it all comes down to a relationship between a disfigured young man and the adopted sister he comes to love; it's a decent story, but I think something must have been lost in translation at the very end because it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Praesangeam's second entry, Black Magic Woman, is even more disappointing. Here you have a lonely but far from unattractive young woman who discovers a magical little love charm that will make any man she chooses fall madly in love with her. Unfortunately, the secret ingredient is the blood of fresh corpses, and you know nothing good can possibly come from that. This is the only story that might send the squeamish viewer to another room, as the potion has some unsightly side effects and the word on the street is that real cadavers were used for some of the juiciest morgue scenes.

Oxide Pang steps up to the plate to direct the final entry, Revenge. This is by far the best segment of the film, as the story follows a detective who takes it upon himself to investigate the strange hanging death of a young woman. His chief files the case as suicide, but all of the clues point to murder. As the detective goes about talking to those who knew the victim and piecing things together, he seems to be getting some ghostly help with the case, as well. Unfortunately, I found the ending of this heretofore impressive story rather confusing, and then it just ends suddenly.

Each one of the three stories had potential, but none really delivered, in my opinion. All cultural differences aside, at least one part of each one just doesn't make sense. The subtitles could be at fault, but I have no way of assessing them versus the Thai language of the film. Is Bangkok Haunted worth watching? Sure, but there is no adequate payoff for its long running time (two hours and ten minutes), and there are plenty of much more impressive Thai horror films out there for you to discover and enjoy.

Bangkok Haunted is a menagerie of exotic and at times erotic tales blending love, sex, death, and most of all it seems, obsession, all wrapped up in the whispers and moans of ghosts and dark spirits that haunt their victims to the end.

I really enjoyed these stories; however, as has been noted before about films made by The Pang Bros., their style can veer towards a certain detachment at times. Nonetheless, you might like these brief yet horrifying vignettes if you are an Asian Horror aficionado.

What I liked best about Bangkok Haunted is the exotic locale and settings; Pete Thong-Jeur (the detective in the last segment of the film) is very attractive, as well as an excellent, enigmatic actor.

(Note: I would forewarn squeamish viewers that the autopsy scenes in particular are quite disgusting, and they used real cadavers.)