Black Night - China, Japan and Thailand

          Director: Takahiko Akiyama,Tanit Jitnukul, and Patrick Leung

          Year: 2006

          Plot: "This horror trilogy [anthology] follows the stories of a man who's having an affair, a woman plagued by nightmares and a mother who fears she's being stalked."

          We'll review each section separate as they are different and I would have a hard time reviewing them as one.

          Next Door:  I did enjoy that you can piece together parts of what happened before it is completely revealed, when Joe and Jane are talking when she arrives, and a comment Joe makes to a coworker.  It was overall, pretty good (much better than most US anthologies I have watched).  I did have a problem with the back and forth “It's my fault”, but the actual ending was good.   The promise that was made was kept which was a nice touch to me, though I guess there is some questions about the end now that I have read another's review.

          ------*Spoiler Start*------  Someone said that it was Hosie possessing Jane at the end living out her own dreams, but I am not so sure.   The issue in this belief for me is that when asked her name, she told the other to wait so she could read the passport (or whatever).  Hosie would have known her own name, so I am led to believe that maybe Jane wants to live out Hosie's life for her.  Otherwise apparently Hosie doesn't know her own name and has a weird idea of making sure Jane lives.  Not really living if a ghost is simply walking around in your body living the life she would have.  ------*Spoiler End*------

          Dark Hole:  I wasn't sure what to think of this section at first, but once Hyu was discussed, it got interesting.  This is mainly because until the end, I wasn't sure what to believe.  The question was, is it real, or imagination?   I like stuff that plays with that questions, especially if it plays out well and even leaves me doubting if I am right.  They arguments against the fantasy were really convincing, but the fantasy was also believable in my mind.

          I liked that while childhood memories were missing to the main character, she seemed to still have a connection to them subconsciously.  There is a major connection to water from her childhood.  The thing that I loved is that she works at the information counter at and aquarium.  Even if she couldn't remember, she still found herself connected to water in some way.  I don't know little things like that really make me believe that some real though went into the character, which I love in general.

          The Lost Memory: Maybe I am out of sorts when it comes to Asian horror movies, but I enjoyed this part too as I did not see the ending coming, either one.  I just liked how this unfolded and couldn't help but notice the role of water again.  I think they should have called the anthology Black Water (Dark Water is taken).

          Anyway, the overall story of this section was rather sad.  I mean the woman lost her memory and is struggling to get it back, but of course not all memories are good ones.  In reality, it might be important to get the memories back, but the character lives in a horror movie.  In that sense memories are often better left forgotten.

          As an anthology, I would suggest this one.  I didn't find it scary, but then again most horror movies are like that for me.  You may not enjoy it for various reasons (some acting in the first section wasn't very good), but I did like the stories for each sections and I found it to be better than some US anthologies (haven't found a good one yet).  If nothing else, it will be a use of time, whether good or bad.  I am having trouble finding a trailer, so a picture will have to suffice.

Who are You? - Thailand

          Director:  Pakphum Wonjinda
          Year:  2010
          Plot:  "Nida is a single mother who takes care of her anti-social son who has locked himself in his room for five years.  The only way to communicate with her son is to write on a piece of paper and slip it under the door.  But, when outsiders start to get curious about what is going on behind the door of her son’s room, a series of terrible events starts to happen."


          I am really not sure what to say about this movie.  I didn't really completely enjoy this movie, but it wasn't the worst I have seen.  I think I might have turned this movie off, if it wasn't for curiosity.  I really did want to know what was going on with Ton and why he never came out of his room.  From the beginning, I had a feeling that something was going on.  Which of course I was quite right about.  I just hadn't figured out that sort of ending.  I guess I kind of seen that ending coming, but not the extent that it was.  I mean did we really need Gollum from Lord of the Rings thrown in there.  Okay, I want say anymore about that.
          If I am right about what happened with the girl's story, I feel kind of sorry for her.  For starters, having allergies like she did had to be quite hard.  Especially when her mother had her so secluded she wasn't even supposed to stand by the window.  I understand it could be dangerous for her, but what kind of life could she have like that.
          I was kind of interested in the whole idea of the power of the mind.  It is rather interesting to think about how much our minds can really do.  I have always been interested in psychology and all.  It just fascinates me the things that our mind can actually cause us to really believe.  By this I mean such delusions or even dreams that seem so real, it is hard to believe that they're not.

          I wouldn't really suggest this movie, but I do think that it isn't a complete waste of time.  This movie is just one for the curious, and like I have said before, for those with nothing else to do.  If you have the opportunity, I would suggest many other movies before this one.

Alone - Thailand

          Director:  Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom
          Year:  2007
          Plot:  "Pim moved from Thailand to Korea to escape the guilt of being the surviving half of a conjoined twin.  After she returns to visit her dying mother, the spirit of her dead sister angrily thrusts herself into Pim's life."

          So I first have to say that this movie got me.  It isn't too often that a horror movie startles me to the point that I end up closing my eyes.  This one happened to do that though.  I even went back to the scene and it got me again.  I am not sure why.  I didn't even go through the build up the second time, and I was still startled by the scene.  The only thing is, that was the only thing that startled me.  The other 'scares' didn't get me, but for some reason the scene with Pim and the flashlight did.
          I had the ending a bit spoiled for me.   Yes, I knew the outcome before it happened thanks to some unnamed people.  The thing is though, this never really bothers me.  I end up just looking for the clues that hint to the end.  This fact sometimes makes a movie rather bad.  That is if they fail to show me subtle clues.  I have to say that this one did a rather good job.  There were many little hints, and if you paid attention, you might have been able to pick up on it yourself.
          This movie isn't as high up on other sites as I feel it should be.  I feel that this kind of came from being done by the same people who did Shutter.  It seems that many felt that this didn't live up to Shutter.  I don't feel that is a fair way to judge a movie.  A movie should not have to live up to the creators other works.  It should simply have to be a good movie in itself.  On this term is how I judge this movie and ended up finding it to be quite good, but of course it wasn't perfect.

          I do suggest this movie.  The story is well done and has many little hints throughout it.  It is definitely one that will let you think before they just spell everything out for you.  I can't see disliking a movie where they try to let you discover the fact for yourself before the reveal where they tell you if you are right or wrong.

My Ex - Thailand

          Director:  Piyapan Choopetch
          Year:  2010
          Plot:  "Ken is a superstar and the dream date of every girl.  He can attract any woman he wants, but every detail of his life ends up in gossip columns and tabloid magazines. When news leaks that Ken will marry actress Ploy, the media goes into a frenzy and their dream life turns into a nightmare.  Someone is stalking them, day and night.  Nimit, Ken's agent, encourages his client to take a break at a beach house, but the problem only escalates when people around Ken start to disappear one by one."


          I watched this movie a while ago, but appearently forgot to post my review.  I found this movie to be quite good.  I hated Ken, but then again, I didn't completely.  While watching a horror movie, you need to be able to feel bad for the characters, otherwise you aren't connected to their horror.  With this movie, though I kind of hated the main character, before things really get to the climax, the story starts to show that he isn't completely bad.  He had done some not so great things to girls, but it seems like maybe he actually did care.
          Like I said though, the main character of this show was a major jerk to women.  He is always in the tabloids for his antics, and it seems rightfully so.  There really is no reason to treat women the way he did, and especially Meen, you will understand why her especially if you see the movie.
          The movie wasn't really all that scary.  Sure the ghost looked creepy, but it didn't scare me.  That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this movie.  The story line is what keeps this movie entertaining and enjoyable.  The scares are just there, though they aren't done poorly.  I have to say that this is one that my sister would probably find scary, but for me it didn't reach that level.

          I would suggest this movie.  The story line is well done, and rather decently acted out.  The only thing that wasn't up to par for me was the scares, but that is partly because of my obsession with horror movies.

Art of the Devil - Thailand

          Director:  Tanit Jitnukul
          Year:  2004
          Plot:  “Boom, pregnant from an affair, is told by her lover to leave him and his family alone.  Enraged, she goes to a witch doctor and has him use black magic against her ex-lover and his family.  They all die in suspicious manners.  Just when Boom thinks everything is over, a woman claims her ex-lover’s inheritance and moves in to his house with her family.  Not long after that, unexplainable things begin to happen to them.”


          I put this one off for awhile, as I had seen it mentioned many times.  I never seemed to have the urge to watch it, and now I understand why.  I am not saying that this was a bad movie, but it wasn’t very great either.  This one definitely didn’t really leave any lasting impression on me.  It was decent for the time I was watching it, but not really to see again.
          I have to say I didn’t like the way that this movie was told.  Some movies it is okay to see out of order and actually enjoy it.  This one was just irritating.  It begins by showing the beginning of the end, then goes back and tells bit by bit with adding some bits of the end in as well.  I might not have found anything wrong with this, if the rest of the movie was more entertaining.
          I also didn’t like the fact that the end parts were black an white, they just looked kind of cheap.  I don’t usually like to say stuff like that because many actually cheaply done movies look great.  The black and white scenes though looked very cheap to me while I was watching the movie.
          I do have to say that the scene with Neng in the hospital was rather gross.  It was about the only scene that stuck with me.  All of the other deaths were rather lackluster to me.  The characters were also a little lackluster.  Boom was the worst to me.  The character just seemed a little flat.  Nothing but the Neng scene shocked, surprised, or astounded me.


          I would suggest to skip this movie if you are expecting something thrilling.  It isn’t going to be much to watch, but it might be good if you have nothing else to do.  Though I wouldn’t necessarily suggest watching this movie, it really isn’t horrible, just not good.  Also the relatively poor quality of this movie isn't going to deter me from giving Art of the Devil 2 a shot sometime.  n.n

Phobia (4bia) - Thailand

          Directors:  Banjong Pisanthanakun, Paween Purikitpanya, Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, and Parkpoom Wongpoom

          Year:  2008

          Plot:  “4BIA is a Horror Anthology. The first segment, "Happiness (Lonely)" is about a lonely girl who corresponded with a stranger over hand phone text messaging and soon discovered something strange about this new stranger that she is attracted to.”

          Seen as this is an Anthology, I think it is just fitting to talk about this movie as each of the parts rather than talk about the movie in general.  So, First off is what was subtitled as Happiness, but used the same characters as Lonely.

          As far as this section goes, I really enjoyed it.  I have mentioned before that I really enjoy subtle hints that allow the viewer to guess what is going on before it happens.  I’m sure some people might not like this, but it is one of my favorite things.  This one definitely had a few hints that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I especially loved the “cramped” comment.  I won’t say more than that.

          I have to say that I would be really scared in the girls situation.  I definitely wouldn’t take it calmly, and neither did she.  Though I knew something was going to happen near the end, it still made me jump.  One of the reasons I love Asian horror.

          Now for Tit for Tat.  This one was good as well.  The only thing that I had an issue with was the CGI.  Now normally, bad CGI doesn’t get to me in Asian horror movies.  This is due to the fact that I know that there CGI isn’t very refined because they do not usually use it as much as in American movies.  With this one though, I couldn’t get over it.

          The CGI just took me out of the movie because it was a really big part of the last half of this section.  With bad CGI, it is better too show as little as possible, and not to have it as the focus point of too many shots.  That is another reason I can over look bad CGI in most Asian movies, it isn’t usually on screen for long.

          I did like the rest of this section though.  The deaths were pretty interesting though because I watched it on YouTube, it was fuzzy for much of it.  Still, it was pretty good.  I really wasn’t expecting the ending though.  I thought it was going to turn out differently, but was rather happy with how it unfolded.

          In The Middle, was rather entertaining to me.  It took many things from other movies, but it didn’t just copy them, they actually mentioned where they were from.  Usually I don’t think I would like a movie to do this, but because they did give credit, I actually kind of liked it.  I will say that if you haven’t seen The Sixth Sense, The Others, or Shutter (either Thai or American) don’t watch this as it will bring up some major spoilers.

          There were some pretty humorous parts to this one.  I couldn’t help but laugh when they started to freak out in the tent.  It comes at a point that is pretty tense, and I just felt it looked way too funny.  I don’t know why, but I really didn’t see the ending coming.  Looking back, I know I should have seen it with all the movie mentions and all, but sadly I didn’t.  I mean I didn’t even see it coming until they turn it over.  

          I guess I actually liked this section without even really knowing why.  It wasn’t really scary, but neither were the movies The Sixth Sense or The Others, which this movie mentions.  All three however were rather good movies.

          Finally, Last Fright.  I have to say that this one got to me.  It isn’t too often that a short can get me to jump more than once, and that’s for a good short too.  This one though got me at two different points, and was just pretty well done for me.

          I do have to say that the ghost was pretty disgusting.  I have no problem with blood, decapitation, amputation, sticking things in eyes, and so on, but I couldn’t look at this ghost for more than a few quick glances.  I think if I would have looked for long I would have felt sick to my stomach.

          I have too say that I didn’t really feel completely sorry for the woman.  Sure the Princess was a rather cruel but to actually ignore such a warning is just wrong.  I mean yeah, she was being horrible, but that is only because the attendant did something wrong first.  Maybe this should be shown as a warning to some people.  n.n

          Anyway, I actually liked this section.  It did start off a bit slow, but in the end it turned out rather good.

          I would definitely suggest giving this anthology a shot.  It definitely surprised me that this movie turned out to be as good as it did as a whole.  Now I am going to have to watch Phobia 2.

Coming Soon - Thailand

          Director:  Sopon Sukdapisit
          Year:  2008
          Plot:  "It will get you wondering if Something or Someone might be waiting for you to let your guard down. The horror movie that you just saw is about to happen to you in real life! Coming Soon."

          Now many people on asian-horror-movies.com said that this movie was scary.  Hearing that from ahm fans, I decided I had to check this one out for myself.  With this movie, I am glad I did, and my sister will definitely be watching this one, if I can talk her into it.  It is really very hard to get her to watch horror movies, even in the middle of the day.  I do love to watch her jump from these movies, and I know for sure that this one will do it easily.
          Even though the ghosts make up was really fake at some instances, it made sense with the storyline being that it was done up as a character on a movie within this movie.  Even with the fake make up look, the ghost scared me more than once.  n.n  As I have said before, it isn't easy to get a scare out of me.  And I don't count the occasional little jump from way too loud music.  It is a cheap trick that doesn't make a good horror movie.  I have to be scared by actual images or what not, not just loud music.  So this movie did it's job well.
          This is pretty much the essence of a movie I have been looking for, a movie with decent scares and a decent storyline.  The movie does start off a bit slow, but that in no way takes away from the ending.  If you felt for Chen the main character, the ending is rather sad.  Well I wouldn't say the ending, because there is a little more to the movie after the end of the Chen and Som story line.

          I definitely suggest watching this movie.  It is really worth your time, and I actually bought this and put it into my collection.  It has an interesting storyline, and some pretty good scares.  There were quite a few people who have decided to rank this one as on of their top asian horror movie, and I am now one of them.

Cadaver - Thailand

          Director:  Dunyasit Niyomkul
          Year:  2006
          Plot:  "In Bangkok, the medical student Mai has her first contact with cadavers in the anatomy class; however, after touching the dead body, she is haunted by the ghost of a woman. The Dean, Professor Winai, advises her to follow another career, but Professor Prakit offers to help Mai supersede her fears and beliefs."


          I have put this one off for awhile now, because the plot never really struck me.  Instead I went and watched movies that others said were good and had decent sounding plots.  I wish I had switched this one with Whispering Corridors, or Nightmare Detective.  The reason is that Cadaver actually had some scares in it.
          There were a few parts throughout the movie where I got a bit confused, but they soon righted those instances in the movie.  I wouldn't say Cadaver is one of my favorite Asian horror movies, but it is still pretty good. You get the feeling while watching it that something isn't what they say it is, after all Mai is the only one in her group getting haunted.  After that you start trying to figure out what the real connection is along with Mai herself.
          All in all I feel that this is a pretty decent movie.  It has its scares in it and a decent storyline, though it is not the best movie I have seen.  It isn't bad.


          I suggest you give this movie a shot.  It is worth a lazy afternoon, but don't expect the best movie you have ever seen.

Hospital - Thailand

          Director:  Pipat Jomkoh

          Year:  2005

          Plot:  "Three friends decide to go to the countryside for a little holiday and then after a car accident they end up in a haunted hospital."

          This movie is only 57 minutes long.  I decided to watch it because it had a 3 out of 5 rating, and was relatively short.  Though I wasn't to sure about how good it would really be.  The plot that was stated really didn't seem too great.  A haunted hospital isn't likely to bring any good storylines because those who die in a hospital aren't very likely to be vengeful.  That idea also kept true with this movie.  The ghost aren't out to kill, they are just there and show themselves in some rather bad timing.

          It turned out that Hospital is a a rather good movie.  It has its points where it gets a little jump out of the audience, but it also has a very well developed storyline.  It starts out where everything is fine, even after the crash, things seem normal.  Slowly though you can pick up little things that don't seem right.  I was rather shocked to find that I didn't see the ending coming.  Looking back I understand the subtle hints I picked up on without having actually figured out the truth.  This aspect for me makes Hospital a very good movie.

          This movie like the Indonesian movie Mirror brought me to tears.  The ending was so touching that even though it was a horror movie the rest of the time, the ending didn't seem out of place.  I didn't feel like the ending was cheap, but that it was actually really touching and meaningful.

          I suggest you watch this movie.  The storyline is really well done allowing you to try and piece things together on your own.  Everyone may not like this movie because of its low amount of scares and "sappy" ending, but it is definitely worth your time to give the movie a try on your own.  You might be able to watch this here.

Sick Nurses - Thailand

          Directors:  Piraphan Laoyont, and Thodsapol Siriwiwat

          Year:  2007

          Plot:  "In a neglected hospital, seven young nurses and a respected doctor have been selling body parts of dad patients on the black market.  When one of the nurses falls in love with the doctor, she urges them all to get out of the scam.  Threatening to go to the police, she is viciously murdered and dies uttering a vengeful curse.  Seven days later her tormented soul, longing to find its love, returns.  Preying on each of the woman's obsessions and weaknesses, she exacts her horrifying revenge."

          I am still kind of unsure about this movie, which is rather strange.  I don't know if it was good or bad as a horror movie.  The first half of it is a little strange because it skipped between nurses a lot.  Though it was rather cool being able to see the parts were the stories overlap.

          This was not a scary movie, though a couple of scenes had me a little shocked.  There's just something about swallowing razor blades that bothers me (but I absolutely love it).  n.n  Anyway it wasn't scary because the best character in the movie was the ghost, and she seemed to have a sassy little attitude.  Also the fact that the nurses were so caddy, irritating, and just all in all unlikable can lead you to hope for their deaths.  If you are wishing for someones death, how can it scare you?

          Sick Nurses isn't a bad of the movie.  The ghost is very likable, and their is a good little twist in the story that I definitely didn't expect.  After watching the movie I didn't feel like I wasted the time, but it wasn't I am going to watch as a horror movie.  On lazy, boring days, I might just have to pull this one out again and watch it.  n.n

          If you are looking for a scary movie, skip this movie.  It won't be worth your time if that's what you're looking for.  However, if you are bored and want to see an interesting little movie where the ghost turns out to be your favorite character, watch Sick Nurses.  It will use up some time of boredum without wasting your time entirely.