The Coffin
The Coffin (2008)
Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham
It's been a while since I've seen a film via the Pacific rim be it J, K, HK or T-horror. In this case, the T is Thai horror with a Singapore flavor mixed in. The Coffin is an example of a film that's distributed abroad across all the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. From Korea to Japan to China to the Philippines, each of these countries has a supernatural angst to the highest degree.
We in the west are not engulfed in all that is ghosts and dismiss this phenomenon as bogus. But when a movie blends deep cultural beliefs with some BOO! GOTCHA! ARGHH! scares it's suppose to make the viewer scared of what he or she most fears. As for me, it's a boring mess of supernatural romantic soap opera nonsense.
The movie's main plot point is that there is a Thai custom that to cheat death and rid oneself of bad luck, a man or woman must lay in a coffin with some ritualistic chanting. The one dude wants to have his girlfriend wake up from a coma and a woman wants to get rid of her cancer. So they perform the ritual and shenanigans arise from pissed off ghosties. Lots of the occasional BOOOOOOOO! mirror scares, moaning sounds, bloody corpses and none of this is really at all scary.
Most of the film is excruciatingly boring as all hell. Conversations in part English and part Thai of whatever mumbo jumbo beliefs. The film is generic as a bottle of tomato flavored "Catsup". I'm not easily impressed by cinematography or foggy cemeteries (this has both and more).
The fact that I could watch YouTube FAIL videos while I watched this flick shows how long these boring scenes were. I'll admit, I've got American ADD and it's not my style to watch long drawn out scenes that set up a BOOO! scare. But even the scares were like flat soda.
Best to keep the Thai supernatural horror across the ocean. Send us some revenge flicks. We like those better.
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
The movie is being released via Breaking Glass Pictures on their Vicious Circle Label. It's now out on DVD. For more info check out the official Breaking Glass Pictures site.
The Vitals
Rating:
1/2 a
Here's the trailer.
Posts
I know it's not an Onryo ghost picture and it might be unfair to call it such, but the casting of long, dark haired, Asian women as the primary specter got tired about 2 or 3 years ago. I get the obsession with ghosts in their particular culture and the idea of a vengeful one was interesting until this sub-genre (if you can call it that) grew real old really quick.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I liked about this film was the concept itself of a faux funeral that could supposedly ward of bad mojo. That was interesting.
Totally agree CTK. I just don't have the excitement for these ghost flicks as I use to. Maybe Japan has something up their sleeve that can get me excited again.
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