Fear, Faith, Revenge (1998)

Somching Srisupap

Thailand

93 min, color, Thai (English subtitles)

This confused attempt to make a horror ghost story is as horrifyingly dull as it is blandly unoriginal and amateurishly executed. It can be a serious turn off for someone who wants to get introduced to Thai cinema because it only shows that the director can do what Hollywood does but do it extremely badly. Neither the story has any original Thai component to it being a run of the mill Ouija board plot, nor does the denouement afford any recognizably interesting conclusion.

The story has to do with an all-boy exclusive Catholic school that has some bizarre seniority system according to which older students get to haze freshmen under the generally approving eye of the Catholic priests and headmasters. It is bizarre not because of the hazing, which is a stupid and unimaginative as its states-side counterpart, but because it happens at a religious institution with the knowledge of the people who are supposed to be instilling Christian values in the students. Ah, never mind. At least they are playing rugby and not American football.

A group of five newcomers are summarily bullied and even beaten up but they stick together and in revenge decide to uncover the mystery of a photograph. They are told that they guy, who is some prince or something and who has apparently been terribly good at everything from poetry to sports (this by itself is naturally horrifying), has committed suicide. Being the good Christians that they are, the boys whip out the Ouija board from between the Geometry and Chemistry books and quickly summon his, or someone else's, spirit who reveals that... gasp... there was a MURDER!

From this uninspired beginnings, the film develops by leaps and bounds and ends up, well, an uninspired murder flick. The students begin dying off one after another, with no visible connection between them. Various people are suspect, but only our intrepid Ouija warriors end up being officially so. In an odd and utterly unprovoked twist, the script introduces an evil character WHO HAS NEVER BEEN MENTIONED EVER, making this the worst offense since the last Agatha Cristie novel. As a rule, one never wants to finger a person who has not appeared in the film. Just does not make a good story.

Without telling the ending (for the unlikely scenario that you would actually want to see this schlock), the resolution involves a lot of stabbing, some script continuity problems (e.g. possessed people walking when their legs are broken and then forgetting to stop walking whey they become dispossessed), and the heroic sacrifice of a janitor for no apparent purpose except to ensure that the main characters will be able to pose for publicity shots on the school steps.

The special effects are laughable but you will be crying when you see the halo and the stars of the good ghost. The acting is atrocious. Even without knowing Thai I could tell that the actors were very very bad. The mildly horrifying English translation of the dialogue added another dimension of amusement. The director apparently seems to think that if a character is made to stare vacantly he will appear terrifying, or if, on the other hand, he is made to stare more vacantly, he will portray deep, although unspecified, emotion. A lot of boys cry (not always while impaled) and many seem to do so without a clue why, although I do remember a very sad burial of a fake cat. Avoid.

January 2, 2003