Anthology movies have a rather chequered past throughout the history of cinema. For every ‘Sin City’ there is a ‘Four Rooms’. More often than not the anthology is an excuse for a group of directors to produce a self indulgent work that rarely finds an audience. Thankfully the horror genre is one of the few genres where the anthology movie can actually work quite well. ‘Twilight Zone: The Movie’, ‘Creepshow’ and ‘Tales From The Crypt’ made in the Seventies and Eighties set a standard for the kind of episodic short story compendium well suited to the horror genre. The short story form appeals to filmmakers where budget constraints and time may be a factor as most feature a single event or incident, have a small number of characters and often take place in one location. The latest horror anthology to come from Thailand follows the format but does it really work?
‘Phobia’, (also known as ‘4bia’) is a four part compendium of horror short stories from four of Thailand’s hottest new directors. Paween Purikitpanya, Yongyoot Thongkongtoon and the co-directing team responsible for the acclaimed ‘Shutter’, Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom join together to offer their take on the horror anthology. Originally made in 2008, this Thai shocker finally gets a DVD release in the UK on the 10th of May.
Opening with a suitably blood soaked title sequence the film is split into four very loosely connected stories of fear, fear of being alone, fear of “things that go bump in the night”, as the trailer puts it, fear of the dead and fear of reprisal. The film begins with ‘Happiness’ (which actually means lonely when translated), directed by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon. It is quite a brave choice to open the film with a 26 minute dialogue free scene set entirely within the confines of the lead teenage girl’s apartment. Housebound due to injuries received in a taxi accident her only connection to the outside world is via her mobile phone. Her evening starts to look promising when she begins receiving friendly text messages from a mysterious boy. However things take a turn for the worse when it becomes apparent that the texts may be being sent from beyond the grave. A sort of cross between Drew Barrymore’s opening scene in ‘Scream’ and ‘When A Stranger Calls’ or When A Stranger Texts as it is in this case, the story builds the tension well and slowly develops the idea that the mysterious messages may be more sinister than friendly. It does not have the same shock factor as ‘Scream’ as it basically follows the same structure of that scene so when the reveal that the stranger may already be in the house finally comes, it seems a little clichéd and unsurprising. ‘Happiness’ does not really grab the attention in a way that the first story in an anthology probably should although it is a lot better than the one that follows.
‘Tit For Tat’, directed by Paween Purikitpanya is a tale of revenge and black magic. Based on a comic book from the writer of Thai horror ‘Body’ it features a group of school bullies facing bloody retribution when their latest victim places a terrifying curse from which there is no escape. This feels a bit like ‘Final Destination’ meets ‘The Omen’, the bullies are picked off one by one in a series of gory accidents. Unfortunately these death scenes lack any kind of invention or originality so I did not find them that engaging. With such a short running time very little time is spent on characterisation so there is no chance to get to know the characters making their demise even less affecting. Another criticism is that the flashy editing, use of freeze frames and crash zooms really did not add anything to the film other than distraction. This segment also features some of the worst CGI I have ever seen. It is as if they did not have time to finish rendering the special effects so we are left with zombies that have no texture at all making the final scenes laughable rather than terrifying.
‘Shutter’ director Banjong Pisanthanakun’s contribution to the film is ‘In The Middle’, a comedy horror following four teenage boys on a camping and white water rafting trip that turns to terror when one of the boys goes missing after their dinghy capsizes. Played mainly for laughs this section of the film is all about pop culture references from the character wearing an ‘E.T.’ t-shirt to discussions of films such as ‘Titanic’, ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘The Others’ and even the director’s own ‘Shutter’. The mere mention of some of these films will give an idea of the sort of twist ending to expect here and while it is amusing in places the film tries too hard to be clever and ends up feeling contrived. Having said that the characters are quite likeable and at least the laughs are intentional unlike in the previous segment.
The final story is from the other director of ‘Shutter’, Parkpoom Wongpoom. ‘Last Flight’ is an extremely creepy tale and is by far the best of all four in this anthology. We join the sole stewardess on a flight taking home the body of a deceased princess. During the flight the stewardess is haunted by the woman whose marriage she wrecked and who she accidentally killed on a previous flight. The claustrophobic nature of being alone on a plane is really emphasised in this effective example of short, horror filmmaking, there is literally nowhere to run. There are plenty of jumps and scares while the tension is maintained throughout. It is a little odd however, that the director chose to conform to the stereotype of the long, straight dark haired female ghost established in Japanese horror films ‘The Grudge’ and ‘The Ring’, an idea that his directing partner makes fun of in the third segment. ‘Last Flight’ stands out from the rest and delivers a most shocking and disturbing sequence of events bringing the anthology to a close.
The DVD is released by Icon Home Entertainment and offers three different sound track options, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 all in the original language. Picture quality is good and the subtitles clear throughout although in places very quick. The only special features on offer are a set of 12 minutes of interviews with the film’s quartet of directors as well as some of the stars looking at varying aspects of the film from the original idea and concept to a brief glimpse behind the scenes. The only other extra is the international theatrical trailer. It seems a shame that these are the only additional features on offer as during the interviews you get a real sense of infectious enthusiasm from all involved. It would have been good to hear a commentary track for each chapter, possibly even multiple commentaries with the directors’ assessing each others’ work.
On the whole I was slightly disappointed with ‘Phobia’; I did not think the four stories worked particularly well together and offered nothing new. Apart from the theme of fear there was no real connection between the films. The tonal shifts between chapters was jarring and goes some way to proving that anthology films can be a real hit and miss affair. It is only thanks to the first and final stories in the quartet that make the film worth a look at all. If you are a horror fan then there are elements to enjoy in the film and it probably works even better on DVD as you can just skip to the better chapters and enjoy them as standalone short films. The film actually proved popular enough in Thailand that a sequel ‘Phobia 2 (or ‘4bia 2’ as it is also known) was produced last year and instead of four stories takes on five so I would not necessarily declare the end of anthology films, I just don’t think we are going to see any great resurgence of the genre anytime soon.
(This review originally appeared on the 'Obsessed With Film' website, I am posting it again here in case you missed it!)
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