29/30
Overall, this one has quite a bit to do
Chronology
A widower and his daughter travel to the deep south of Thailand to seek help from a Muslim healer after unleashing a djinn on a dilapidated house. After the death of his wife, a factory worker moves with his teenage daughter to an abandoned mansion in a predominantly Muslim suburb of Bangkok, where disrespect for several artifacts inadvertently unleashes a series of curses on her and she must try to do the right thing to stop the incidents from continuing. Among the main enjoyable features here is the strong story that allows the film to work in local folklore and lore as a building block for simpler supernatural antics.
Plus, the film goes a long way with its impressive and somewhat terrifying series of hauntings
Operating within the confines of the country’s history by exploring Thailand’s uneasy cultural and social relationship with its Malay citizens and the Muslim community in sharp conflict with the more traditional Buddhist methodology prevalent throughout the country is a great way to work with this. Instead of simply encountering a series of ghosts or hallucinations and believing it’s all in his head, the downward spiral is instead given a historical context that easily explains everything that’s happening to him and his relationship with those around him. When these aspects are brought up as a possible means for the nature of what’s happening around him, this setup becomes more believable, which helps bring the boundaries of the final shot together, where everything makes sense.
This section also brings in the heavy use of Muslim culture for how the demonic beings interact and how the spiritual battles take place, which adds a different flavor to these scenes
With the opening set-up giving a small hint of the resulting curse affecting others that will soon follow, the gradual build-up of events as the action shifts to the present day is quite intriguing. Featuring the series’ traditional set-ups, including hallucinations of people or things that don’t exist, shadows coming to life behind their familiar faces, or whispers of demonic influence taking over, these aspects are a major part of the middle segments here, as the haunted house-style structure is in place. They lead to a strong finale where the show is kicked up a notch, involving the influence of spectral beings, exorcism rituals, a supernatural fight session, and a more focused energy that allows for a lot of action to happen at a time when… it’s warranted and necessary.
One of the main detriments is a challenging and somewhat unnecessary running time that lasts much longer than it should
Overall, these factors are enough to bring a lot of fun to this one, although there are a few issues that arise here. While we get a lot of buildup around their strained relationship and the need to rebuild it, as well as the inner workings of their existence in the community, some of it takes far too long and makes the pacing stop and falter as a result. A bit of the repetitive nature of Neighbors' The attempt to instill their beliefs or welcome them into the workplace community can be cut, as can the flashback explaining the origins of the cursed property, which plays out in a reenactment rather than being served solely as a narrative that explains what happened.