THE CURSED LAND (แดนสาป) (NETFLIX) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: fter the death of his wife, Mit and his teenage daughter May relocate to a house in a suburban neighborhood. While digging into the ground to build a shrine, Mit unwittingly unleashes a raging djinn imprisoned during the founding of Bangkok, 200 years prior. After a Buddhist monk fails to calm the situation, Mit and May travel to Narathiwat, a province in Thailand’s deep south, a troubled area with heavy military presence, to seek the help of a Muslim witch doctor. Unbeknownst to them, the final exorcism will unlock many dark secrets about the land.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Two decades later, the Thai horror that started it all- Shutter returns recently to theatre for an exclusive one-night remastered 4K Atmos screening, its leading man, Ananda Everingham however appears in yet another horror piece on the small screen.

Due to his job, Mit (Everingham) and his teen daughter May (Jennis Oprasert) has to relocate to a Muslim-majority suburb of Bangkok. For lodging, the company arranged the father-and-daughter to stay in a massive dilapidated ancient wooden house. Rent free by the way. It doesn’t take long or as typical horror tropes tell you, there’s something eerie going on in the house. And Mit being the skeptical man he is, immediately took down all the protective talismans and threw out all the old belongings in the house despite being warned by his fellow factory worker not to do so.

Soon, Mit finds himself frequently hallucinating and unable to concentrate in his work. He hears sounds that bumps in the night. He hears his late wife’s voice over the phone. He saw an non-existent bloody wound on his leg. It doesn’t help that he is also kind of Islamophobic after the death of his pet dog and he finds an aloof, mysterious factory worker, Heem (Bront Palarae) threatening.

Frankly, The Cursed Land is kind of mild as compared to the usual offerings of Thai horrors. Directors Panu Aree and Kong Rithdee seem more keen in exploring the Muslim community and the political subtext of the violence and unrest happening in the south of Thailand. With Buddhism as the predominant religion in Thailand, the narrative touches on the minorities and Islamic, something that is unheard of in a Thai horror. We got to give the movie extra points for that.

With a measured pacing, the supposedly horror and jump scares appear sporadically onscreen and even then, it’s not that effectively staged to make much of an impact. An aged witch doctor is introduced midway into the mayhem to deal with the furious djinn or in simpler term, a house spirit. The finale is cheesy and the whole exorcism is cursed with 90’s style early CGI that probably most audiences will find it chuckling than thrilling.

Mit is a character that is haunted by his wife’s accidental death. There’s also an overdramatic arc of him that is irrelevant to the whole horror saga despite the filmmakers effort in trying to pull off an insightful look into him. In the end, the ghostly spectre happened to be an ancient Muslim slave which had a tedious backstory of his own making the movie almost 30 minutes too long.

The Cursed Land is a decent effort in telling a story about the Islamic supernatural world. The performances of Ananda, Jennis and Palarae is solid as well. But its potential is squandered by the less than convincing CG, a lacklustre pacing and exhausting emotionally aspects.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee