That was an excellent one.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Because I'd just recently seen an actual autopsy (How do you spend YOUR spare time...?), I picked up on the fact that the autopsy in the second segment of BANGKOK HAUNTED wasn't "anatomically correct" piles of latex foam rubber or cgi. A look at the extras on the DVD confirmed my suspicions. If you're one of those sick puppies who actually likes to see "the real thing," here it is. In the flesh. Despite that, BANGKOK HAUNTED is a beautifully crafted film that (in my own, ever humble opinion) never bores the viewer- and, if the superb film-making doesn't do it for you, just ogle the jaw-droppingly beautiful women. Storywise, I didn't have a problem with any of the three segments (and the third, with storytelling twist after twist, is guaranteed to satisfy even the most jaded mystery fan). The performances are likewise solid all around, but, again, it's the outstanding craftsmanship that makes BANGKOK HAUNTED worth seeing.

I thought the movie was fantastic. The scares weren't over-the-top at all; neither were they overused. Some horror fans will be disappointed by the lack of many, but I thought that when the scares DID come, they were fantastic. Oxide and Pisuth definitely know when to utilize a scare within a certain scene and I thought this movie was just overall, amazing. Great stories, good endings, and awesome cinematography.The only negative that I can give is that the stories were slightly confusing, but definitely not impossible to understand. And characters are used over and over again in different stories, so it was sort of hard to follow characters when they were someone else in a different story. But like I said, another watch-through, and it cleans up all the loose ends. This movie would definitely be useful to watch during a night with some friends over, so that discussion can follow and clear up what you missed. Awesome movie, but don't expect many scares--just like 28 Days Later, this serves as more of a drama horror film, rather than a true horror one.

We have a very strong start as we open upon a story that is sort of like an Asian phantom of the Opera with incest. A young girl and her brother live happily in a small village until one day traveling visitors bring a man the girl starts to fall in love with. Her jealous brother, with a deformed face he always hides, decides to wreak havoc, and the ghost of the young girl gets endowed into a drum that travels the country haunting whoever happens to be close by.Tthhhheeeeennnn the movie reveals that it's just a story being told, and that three young Thai women at a restaurant are telling each other ghost stories. The thing about these types of narratives is that they fundamentally ruin the point of the stories in the first place. Horror is made to terrify, right? So how can we appropriately fear for characters' lives and souls when we know they're fake? Even beyond the level of fakenss inherent in any medium, we now are twice removed from the characters' psyches: once because we're actually watching a television screen, and twice because we're watching characters tell stories about characters that don't exist diagetically.Worse, the next two stories turn out to have that wonderful flavor of, "Huh, I've heard variants of this before." Yep, suddenly we move away from the interesting story (which also, interestingly, had much better dialog, direction, cinematography, and just about everything) that held our attentions for 40 minutes, and then we follow two other stories for another hour and a half that are, when you break it down, merely urban legends.Gee, and I was so enjoying the beginning.To be fair, the third story isn't THAT bad, and since it's a mystery it's a little nice to follow. But the second story is just soo boring! It's very disappointing to be enjoying yourself and then have the director say, "Okay, so, we're done with that, now to move on!" Two things you should never do in a horror movie because it's no longer fresh and now it becomes slightly insulting: never have it end up being just a dream, and never have it end up being just a story.--PolarisDiB

I just received a screener of the Panik House DVD for this film, and the packaging is very impressive! I'm happy to report that the movie and the extras are every bit as impressive as well. This is an omnibus film co-directed by Oxide Pang, who along with brother Danny, directed THE EYE and BANGKOK DANGEROUS. There are three stories (told by three young women in a Bangkok Cafe) of horror and the supernatural shot in three distinctly different styles, while each fitting together quite nicely in the end. All of the stories have shocking moments of violence, but are never presented in an exploitive way, as thought the violence on screen is never superfluous and always serves to push the story forward. The first story, "Legend of the Drum" is a tale of murder a nd possession, and according to the "Making Of" featurette, the filming of this segment involved actual unexplainable circumstances, reminiscent of recently disclosed events on the sets of the original Exorcist and Wes Craven's Serpent And The Rainbow. The costume design is incredibly creepy. The second tale, "Black Magic Woman" involves an aphrodisiac, zombified prostitutes, and crazed axe-wielding killer, and may have involved actual cadavers. The third entry, directed by Oxide Pang, "Revenge" is the real payoff, and has a very original story structure and the best multi-level police procedural drama this side of CSI. Pete Thong-jeur gives a realistic and believable performance as a young detective convinced that a possible suicide is a case of murder, and the victim's spirit visits him throughout the investigation with ghastly consequence. The wrap-up is among the most original I've ever seen, and I'm going to run out and buy anything else with Oxide's name on it after this. The disc has a ton of extras. In addition to the documentary, there are trailers, a Pang Brothers bio written by Psychotronic Video Guide's Art Black (who also wrote the Thai Cinema Essay) and a lengthy still gallery. Oh yeah, it comes with a sticker, too. Great film, great disc.