In Thailand, shaman's body becomes a vessel for the possession of a supernatural entity. Supernatural entity: Ghosts, god, demons.
The director who made Shutter, one of the creepiest Thai movies I've ever seen when I was teenager and the last scene still lingers somewhere deep in my subconscious till today. From the mind of Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin, this movie is about shamans.
I got to know about this movie because there were those who watched this movie and dared not enter the toilet at night. As a horror movie buff, I had to challenge myself and watch this. I wanted to see if it scared me or not. There hasn't been many horror movies that have scared me yet. So why not?
Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun (Thailand) & produced by Na Hong-jin (South Korea)
Horror movies made in Thailand can be very frightening. Unexpected and real. This movie is made like a documentary.
PLOT
A documentary team travels to Isan, Thailand to record the daily life of a Thai medium. Nim
Nim is the medium for the spirit of Bayan, a local goddess. It has been in her bloodline for a couple of generations to be processed by the spirit of Bayan.
Spirit of Bayan's statue
If your wondering why does someone need to become a medium for a god. Worshippers sometimes seek the help of god in areas of wealth, health, love and a cure for unseen illness. In the Asian culture, there is more than one god. Spirit of Bayan is the local deity that the local villages worship and call for help.
Noi, Nim's sister
The Spirit of Bayan was suppose to choose Nim's sister as her last succession. Noi refused as she did not believe her existence. Tragic events befell on her family.
Mink, Noi's daughter [The main character]
She starts to act in a peculiar way becoming alcoholic, eating their family's pet, suddenly appearing at night. Fired from her job, one night she returned and slept there, what she did there, is something pretty obscene.
Her condition grew worst.
Mink, seen here climbing on the bed at night caught on CCTV.
Noi gets very worried and believes that the spirit of Bayan is punishing Mink for not accepting her. So, the ceremony of acceptances is made to accept the Spirit of Bayan into Mink. Mink gets locked up in a room while the ritual goes on. Noi is brought to an abandoned building with other shamans who would be conducting the ritual.
Half way through, Noi manages to escape the room the ritual breaks. Everyone gets brutally attacked by Mink and it turns into bloodthirsty monsters. I did not go through every detail of the movie in case you want to watch it and still would get some thrill out of watching it. It is believed that Mink was possessed by a hundred beheaded men that her dad's ancestors did in the past. That is pretty scary. But how can one vessel hold so many spirits?
Review
I watched this movie twice to fully get the idea of what was going on. The final parts of the movie, looked like a zombie apocalypses movie. This is not a kids movie and should not be watched with kids. There is only one obscene part which takes place in Mink's office.
It wasn't really scary for me but I wanted to watch it since it's rumoured to be the scariest movie of the year in asia? If you have never seen Shamans in Asia, this is an eye opening movie.