Phobia 2 (2009)

An anthology is the sum of its parts, so how does this particular set stack up?Novice: A young man with a troubled past is left to live among monks, where karma catches up to him. Interesting idea, but lacking in execution and a bit boring until the end. (5/10)Ward: An injured teenager spends the night in a hospital room with a brain dead old man on a respirator who is slated to be taken off life support the next day. Spooky and violent, with a twist ending. (7/10)Backpackers: My favorite of the bunch. Two young hitchhikers are picked up by two truckers with cargo more dangerous than any of them know. I'd love to see a full movie made from this one. (9/10)Salvage: A dishonest car saleswoman had a terrifying night when one of her vehicles is returned by an angry customer and her own son disappears. A gruesome little ghost story, once again featuring karma as a main theme. (8/10)In the End: A funny and subversive tale about the filming of one of those "spooky long-haired ghost girl" horror films that had been coming out of the east so frequently in the last 10+ years. (8.5/10)Phobia 2 gets off to a rocky start, but overall it's an entertaining and varied mix of Thai horror.

The problem with anthology movies is that the quality of each individual story differs from the other and therefore makes it real difficult to grade the overall experience. But i will try. The first thing I noticed that there isn't a real connection between the individual stories. Other than the prominent role given to cars. This movie could have made more impact had there been a cleverer connection. Phobia 2 is very visual and doesn't rely too much on dialog. Which is very smart since this way it will appeal to a large (international) audience. Most movies were creepy and had decent buildups. There are some sequences however that didn't work for me. I got the impression whenever a scene failed to deliver on tension and suspense they replaced it with gore. Which had the complete opposite effect on me of what was intended. From the five stories there are two that stand out. These are "Backpackers" and "In the end". This last story is absolutely hilarious and scary at the same time. It is full with twists and turns that will creep you out and will make you laugh. This story alone is the reason to watch Phobia 2. To be honest (apart from some scenes) I didn't find it really scary. Stories like "Novice" and "Salvage" weren't compelling enough. And too often the loud background music announced the scares which ruined most of the surprise. Overall however I enjoyed this movie. Just don't expect too much.

Phobia 2 is (as is predecessor) divided into short segments, directed by an all star team of Thai movie makers. That is makers of movies of the scary kind! It's rather unfair to write a review of the movie as a whole, so instead I'll write a bit about the individual parts.The movie starts out with "Novice", the story of a boy being dropped off at a Buddhist monastery. The segment is eerie and set in a beautiful environment. The horror theme is a mix between a few jumpscares and some painfully gory bits. All in all an OK segment, but it lacked in the scary department. 6/10 Segment number two, labeled "Ward" takes place in (surprise) a hospital ward. A young man is injured and confined to a hospital bed, next to a man on life support. He can't leave his room and bed as scary events unfold. That is also what the horror theme is based around, completed with a fair amount of well-directed jumpscares. 7/10 The third segment is named "Backpackers" and could be used as a propaganda film on why you shouldn't hitchhike. It has the feel of a classic horror movie, with great makeup, gore and sound effects. It also deals with morals in pressed situations as the protagonist has to make some tough decisions. It has been done before, but I still loved this segment. 8/10 The fourth segment, "Salvage" is set in a second hand car store, dealing in a very special type of cars. It's built around a lot of cool ideas and there's plenty of both gore and jumpscares, but the story is a bit weak in my opinion. 6/10Finally, my favorite part. I loved the segment "In the middle" from the first movie and this one is even better. The cast from "In the middle" is back to poke more fun on the horror genre (including their previous adventure). The twists, turns, plot holes and clichés creates a truly hilarious and fantastic short. Banjong Pisanthanakun has a great deal of self distance and both Shutter (once again) and Alone are made fun of, as well as the entire Hollywood horror genre. 10/10

I admit this movie is excellent. It got more scares and more gory. The movie had 5 stories("Novice","Ward","Backpackers","Salvage","In the end"). I like 5 of them. "Novice" is gory. "Ward" is scary, "Backpackers" is thrilling, "Salvage" is scary yet gory and "In the end" is Funny and scary. Phobia 2 is better than 4BIA. In 4BIA, Paween Purikitpanya made the story a little bit weird. But, well done for the improvement at Phobia 2. In Phobia 2, "In the end" Had the same cast as 4BIA-"In the middle". But, i think they are funnier at this movie. And Marsha Wattanapanich (who played at "Alone")is funny to you know. But she act funny a little overreacted. That's just what i'm going to say. Well done Phobia 2. My Vote: 8/10