Wisp of a Thing
It’s a long black-haired, hopping-mad, goo-spitting ghost lady movie. You know what to expect.
DEath Whisperer
Director: Taweewat Wantha • Writers: Sorarat Jirabovornwisut, Thammanan Chulaborirak, based on the novel by Krittanon
Starring: Nadech Kugimiya, Rattanawadee Wongtong, Denise Jelilcha Kapaun, Arisara Wongchalee, Ongart Cheamcharoenpornku, Porjade Kaenpetc
Thailand • 2hrs 1min
Opens Hong Kong January 25 • III
Grade: C-
It’s 1972 in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, and a farmer and his wife are harvesting shallots and discussing an illness in the family. There’s plenty of pronoun gaming (© Cinemasins) going on until we hear a scream and the couple races home to find their daughter Nart writhing in pain and spewing blood and bile from all orifices. She dies (no duh), and in the distant woods we see the ghostly apparition of a long straggly-haired woman in a black dress hissing. Yes, it’s another straggly-haired woman horror movie. Look, you can have that, or you can have a pasty sunken-eyed urchin. Dealer’s choice.
Taweewat Wantha’s Death Whisperer | ธี่หยด cribs from just about every Asian shocker to come down the pipe in the last few years, and definitely from the Ringu school of vengeful female ghouls for its checklist, but it does so without the finesse of Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoomor’s Shutter or the unhinged creativity of Andy Muschietti’s Mama. Whipping frantically from scene to scene with little interest in narrative progress Death Whisperer is a hot mess almost out of the gate, notable mostly for stilted performances, leaden dialogue, and threats of a franchise. This was a runaway hit at home, making about 25 times its THB20 million (HK$4.4 million, or one FFFI film) budget. People must have been bored.
Nom nom nom
Several years (months, decades? Who knows?) after Nart’s tragic demise, another farmer and his six children – Yak, Yos, Yod, Yad, Yam and Yee – find themselves confronting the same evil spirit. On their way to school one morning, Yad (Denise Jelilcha Kapaun), Yam (Rattanawadee Wongtong) and Yee (Nutthatcha Padovan) encounter the same straggle hair under a sinister bamboo tree. They’re creeped out but go about their business while anticipating a fun evening at the world’s saddest country fair (the extras budget must have been thin). Before you can spew black goo, Yam’s acting weird. Luckily rebellious, hair-triggered, sass-talking eldest son Yak (model and allegedly “award winning” actor Nadech Kugimiya) is back home just in time to help with the mystery of Yam’s sudden illness, largely by rolling up his sleeves and flexing his ’ceps. Frequently. They’re very nice biceps, but come on. He taps an old friend (?) Paphan (Ongart Cheamcharoenpornkul) for help, who finds an exorcist Phut (Porjade Kaenpetch). Let the usual mind-fucking hijinks begin.
In fairness, there’s a great Blumhouse-style, low budget Asian ghost story buried in here, though it’s probably been crushed by Kugimiya’s guns. Wantha has a feel for gore: a corn field chase that ends with a head hanging off Yak’s pursuer – yet still pursuing him – and the demonic Chuay’s (Jampa Saenprom) first assault on Yam’s soul via fist to the face (literally) are great moments that come out of nowhere. On top of that Wantha makes the most of a tight budget by exploiting sound for scares. It works more than it doesn’t, and goes a long way to building the third act’s isolated cabin in the woods tension. But, and it’s a huge but, writers Sorarat Jirabovornwisut and Thammanan Chulaborirak are so concerned with IMAX dazzle (it’s Thailand’s first film for the format) they forgot a story that made sense. If Yak, Yos and Yod are trying to stay awake to watch out for straggle hair why are they drinking themselves into a stupor? Does Yee have to be the dumb kid that opens the door to an obvious mind trick? What is straggle hair’s beef? Why is there a credit for Chuay as well as a “Black Dress Woman”? Are there two antagonists? What’s this movie even about? What’s a death whisperer anyway? Adding insult to injury, Wantha forgot to direct his actors, who are wooden across the board, though it’s hard to fault them for struggling with the script’s staggering one-dimensionality. — DEK