39/13
Overall, there’s quite a bit to do here
Chronology
A widower and his daughter travel to the deep south of Thailand to seek help from a Muslim doctor after being possessed by a djinn in a dilapidated house. After the death of his wife, a factory worker moves with his teenage daughter to an abandoned mansion in the Muslim-majority city of Bangkok, where he disrespects several objects and accidentally unleashes a series of curses on them, and they must try to do the right thing to prevent the incidents from continuing. One of the main enjoyable aspects here is the strong story line, which allows the film to work within localized folklore and traditions as a building block for simpler supernatural tricks.
The film also gets a lot right with its series of impressive and somewhat chilling hauntings
Working within the confines of the country’s history by exploring Thailand’s troubled cultural and social relationship with the Muslim community in Malaysia, which is in sharp contrast to the more traditional Buddhist methodology practiced throughout the country, is a great way to work with this. Instead of just running into a series of ghosts or hallucinations and thinking it’s all just inside his head, the downward spiral is given a historical context that easily explains everything that happens to him and his relationship to those around him. When these aspects are brought up as possible means for the character to understand what’s going on around him, this setup becomes more believable, helping to tie together the boundaries of the last half, where everything makes sense.
The house-style structure is in place
While the opening setups have a small hint of a curse that will soon affect others, the gradual buildup of events as the action moves to the present day is quite intriguing. The traditional set-up, including hallucinations of people or things that don’t exist, shadows coming to life behind their knowledge, or whispers of demonic influence, make up a large part of the middle segments here as haunting. These lead to a strong finale where the spectacle kicks up a notch, featuring spectral creatures, exorcism rituals, a supernatural battle session, and a more focused energy that allows for a lot of action at a time when it’s warranted and necessary.
Overall, these elements are enough to bring a lot of fun to this, although there are some problems here
This section also highlights the great importance of utilizing Muslim culture in the interaction between demonic beings and the spiritual battles that take place, which brings a different flavor to these scenes. One of the biggest drawbacks is the challenging and somewhat unnecessary running time, which takes longer than it should. While we get a lot of buildup to their strained relationship and the need to rebuild it, as well as the inner workings of their community, some of this goes on for too long and makes the pacing and stutter.
as a result
Quite a bit of the repetitive nature of the neighbors' trying to instill his beliefs in these two or welcome them into the work community could be cut, as could the flashback explaining the origin of the cursed property, which is presented in a replay instead of being offered as just a story explaining what happened. Seeing the past with the various characters responsible for cursing and counter-cursing the place is just draining and exhausting, even though the story alone would have made the movie flow more smoothly.