Opening Day: 24 September 2009

Synopsis:

A collection of five horror stories, from the studio that made SHUTTER, DORM, BODY #19, ALONE, COMING SOON, 4BIA. By Thailand’s most talented horror film directors- Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, Alone, 4BIA – In the Middle), Paween Purijitpanya (Body, 4BIA- Tit for Tat), Songyos Sugmakanan (Dorm, Hormones), Parkpoom Wongpoom (Shutter, Alone, 4BIA – Last Fright), and a new director Visute Poolvoralaks the man behind the success of Shutter, Alone, 4BIA, and Coming Soon.

Novice - Fourteen year-old Pey committed a crime, so his mom decides to hide him in a Buddhist monastery to escape punishment. However, something deep down inside is bothering him. Will Pey's Karma catch up with him?

Backpackers - Upon graduation, a young Japanese couple decides to hitchhike around Thailand. They manage to get a ride on a truck, but suspect something strange in the truck's trailer. What exactly is in the back of the truck?

In the End – Four boys are filming an upcoming horror movie. As they are shooting their last scene, one of the actresses dies mysteriously. To finish the film, they have to have her complete her scene, DEAD or NOT.

Salvage – A car dealer makes her living by refurbishing used cars, sometimes with horrific pasts. One night after closing, she discovers her son is missing. Could these cars have memories of their tragic histories?

Ward – A young man is in hospital for a motorcycle accident. He is moved into a room with an old man on life support. When strange things start happening in the middle of the night, he starts to wonder. Is he really alone?

Movie Review:

Sometimes good things come in small packages and 4bia (Phobia 1) was a testament to that. The anthology of various short horror stories worked well as it removes the unnecessary padding out of a good horror idea. It allows the storyteller to focus on the crux of the horror that he is delivering and makes a good splash out of it. The four directors of 4bia brought a distinctive flavor of horror to the plate and it was fun to sit through the four mini horror movies for the price of one. Needless to say, at the end of 4bia, the sequel (if any at that point of time) was highly anticipated.

And Phobia 2 didn’t disappoint. In fact, the production value seems to have gone up a notch and sharper story telling. Even though each segment contains a whole new story, if you look closer, there are some sorts of links to the first anthology.

Without further delays, let’s review each of the segments.

Novice

It was a strong start for this anthology of horror stories. Novice blends traditional folklores, Buddhist teachings and good old scariness to preach a lesson on redemption and regrets. In it’s short time frame, it deftly touches on kinship, karma and facing one’s personal demons that left a memorable mark. It raises the question of how one would face it’s mistakes and fears. Would they run or would they stand their ground to receive their punishment.

One of the notable aspects of this segment would be the usage of special effects. Instead of overdosing it, the special effects were used quite sparingly and subtlety to aid this tale of 'you reaps what you sow'. The end result of that choice was that it created a surprisingly effective sense of eeriness and dread.

Ward

This segment invoked memory of 4bia’s Alone. Both settings are confined to one area and both segments had their respective protagonist encountering terrors from a ghostly visitation. Both were cost effective to make and yet successful in creating the terrifying tension with only two cast members.

What made Ward a notch better than Alone was the revelation at the end. It gave a better explanation to the unreasonable haunting to the poor chap who got warded. 4bia’s Alone’s rational for the haunting felt rather twisted for it’s own good and was a bit of hard sell while Ward’s rational had that fierce angle that it made sense for the ghostly disturbance. What made it even scarier would be that in a country that’s famous for the usage of black magic, this story might be plausible after all.

Backpackers

While the previous two segments uses the unseen spirits to create the disturbing atmosphere, Backpackers was a fun homage to the zombie genre. In a way, it’s similar to 4bia’s "Tit For Tat" (which is basically a black magic tale told in Final Destination style) where the fun is in attempting to survive the mess.

Like any good zombie movies out there, Backpackers wisely do without too much explanation of how the zombies were created. It basically focuses on two Japanese backpacker travelers and two dodgy truck drivers’ attempt in surviving the massacre. The fun lies in the battle for their morality, the unexpected zombies attack and a very bleak ending that screams for a sequel.

Salvage

Similar to The Last Fright in 4bia, the concept for salvage came from a far-fetched ideology that’s not without it’s merits. Previously, it was a case of what if a stewardess was stuck in a flight with a corpse and the director chose to explore the fear factors by adding vengeance and solitary in that premise.

This time round, the director chose an unscrupulous 2nd hand car dealer that deals with cars that had been involved in accidents. He pushed the horror elements in by imagining what if remnants of those tragedies are still trapped in those metals that had been remodel into sellable 2nd hand cars. In the ghost genre, it’s plausible that those who had suffered within the confine of the metallic box could somehow find their suffering trapped or transmitted in those metal objects. Personally it was an innovative idea blend such 'bottled up emotions' with the acts of a dishonest 2nd hand car dealer.

However the segment was somehow letdown by it’s execution aspect and moments that felt scary in the trailer didn’t managed to excel so much while played out in full. It doesn’t help that the segment reminded of moments from The Orphanage and Drag me to hell. In a way, it’s flawed but still worthy segment.

In the End

After getting spooked for 4 segments, "In the End" was a comedic effort that made us laugh as hard as it was spooky.

"In the End" bears the hallmarks of Banjong Pisanthanakun’s "In The Middle" as it poke fun of the horror genre like never before. It was a comedy riot when this segment self-depreciates the director’s movies such as Shutter and Alone. It even went on to poke fun of overacting in horror films and how bad decisions were made on set while filming. Who’s dead and who’s not? It all ended in a big barrel of laughs and unexpected twist that’s worth re-watching.

Without a doubt, "In the End" sets a precedence and standard for good 'homedy' (horror comedy). Needles to say, this segment is my personal favorite and in my opinion, it’s well worth the cost of admission to Phobia 2.

Movie Rating:


(Anthology of pure fun and terror)

Review by Richard Lim Jr