Bangkok Haunted (2001)

Possible minor spoilers: nothing to integral with the film.Bangkok Hanted is a 3 part anthology of 'ghost stories' being told by a group of woman sitting down at a restaurant. After the first story we see this. The first story is about a haunted drum, and is excellent. I personally was gripped shot by shot; the camera work is top notch. On top of this, the film has a unique visual style, and almost appears like an early 90's-late 80's film. This along with the soundtrack really do create a dark atmosphere. The soundtrack actually seems to take a leaf out of Dario Argento's book, as it implements drums etc. The main good feature of the first though isn't even the horror elements; it is along with the camera work, the excellent story-telling. A story i will never forget. 9/10The second story is where the movie stars to show its poor production. This is a story about a substance which can get a woman any man she wants. All the woman has to do is rub the substance onto the man. But it has unseen consequences and the men who have this substance rubbed onto them seem to suffer terrible deaths. This stories problem is that it is terribly SLOPPY. The story seemingly skips from shot to shot, with little cohesion, the ability to tell a story seems to have been thrown out of the window, and the camera work seems to shift into mediocrity. I'm not sure whether all of the effort was intended for the first story, but this one becomes a chore to watch. Also this story begins the progression into terrible acting, without a single good performance.The third story is actually better than the second, but a clear mile and a half behind the first. This story follows a police detective as he tries to solve a murder case, which his boss, despite obvious contradictions, believes was suicide. At the start we see a woman hanging. The idea of suicide you would expect to be implausible as we see the woman hanging about 8 feet off of the floor. The story then follows as he goes through the unofficial police investigation, going through the very few close friends, boyfriends etc. that the woman had. The ending to this one is very unique, and you'll remember it for a long time, but unfortunately it suffers from a terrible lead actor, who seems to be void of acting capabilities. He doesn't even as much as flinch his face throughout the whole thing. This piece of storytelling is also sloppy as apparently the investigator knows the person who hung herself(?!?) and this isn't at all clearly shown at the start!So this is what i have to say: I would have to recommend watching this; maybe rent it if possible. I say this as the first story is top notch, absolutely superb. I gave it a 9/10, and if it was a stand-a-lone film, it would have been absolutely awesome. So give it a go, and hopefully the others can at least entertain, rather than being the chores they were for me.

A collection of three ghost stories: In the first, which plays like a darker Beauty and the Beast, an antique drum ends up in the hands of a young woman who has to work out its secret before things turn deadly.In the second a young woman finds a potion to make her irresistible to men, unfortunately it comes with a price. In the last story a cop won't let go of suicide and finds that not only are things not as they appear, but that he should have left the whole thing alone.Its nice to report that here is a recent vintage Thai horror film that isn't a misfire. Its also a relief not to see yet another Asian horror film with a girl with long hair creeping through every scene. This is a ghost story with a decidedly non western flavor thats a nice mix of old and new horror. I don't know if its scary as such but it certainly creates a bit of tension.Although the stories are of various (but good) quality the only thing thats really off with this movie is the pacing. The films should either have been expanded feature length or shortened to something more manageable since the 40 to 45 minutes of each is just not right for the tales told. I felt alternately that things went on too long for what they were or didn't go on long enough and the film was "neither fish nor foul". However despite my complaint about the lengths I do like the stories which are good enough to keep you watching (actually the stories get better as the film progresses) The performances are good and the effects are excellent, I especially love the faces in the smoke.This is a good movie. If you like horror films, and Asian horror films in particular I think you'll find this worth renting or taking the time to watch if you run across it on cable or satellite.7 out of 10

Three women are telling three unrelated ghost stories in Bangkok Haunted.First `Legend of the Drum ` about a modern girl receiving by mistake an old drum and spirits showing her what happened to a beautiful dancer and a deformed guy whose not corresponded love for the girl ends up with tragic consequences. Second `Black Magic Woman' about a women so desperate for love that he resources to some magic lotion, not knowing it is made with dead people fluids, and kill those to whom it was applied.Last and not least `Revenge' about a cop investigating the dead of a beautiful woman was nothing is what it seems. This one is the most complex and twisted of the group; also the one with less chills.The first two parts were directed by Pisut Praesangeam and the last one by Oxide Pang Chun (creator of The Eye); it is easy to notice different styles, but there are some common elements on all of them, keeping an unity, atmosphere and an average quality on the whole movie. The camera work and character development are very interesting. The acting is acceptable.Ghost appear everywhere, every time; but most of the time as part of the background, not relating with the characters. This creates some gratuitous but welcome chills in the spectator, compensating the overall slowness of the movie. Yes; pace is quite slow, and is not an horror movie in the standard sense; so those looking for gore or violent images will be somewhat disappointed, however this is not a psychological thriller either; blood and some violent killings or rotten bodies sporadically happen but never in a `Friday 13th' excess.Conclusion: This is not gore, terror intensive Evil Dead nor a quiet 6TH Sense or The Others; it will not give you the creeps but will intrigue you enough to keep you in your seat for two hours and ten minutes.

As with most people familiar with Oxide Pang, my introduction to this movie came through the creepy spook film, "The Eye". I was genuinely impressed with The Eye, and, eager to find more films by Oxide and his brother Danny, i came across Bangkok Dangerous and Bangkok Haunted. Dangerous is a flick about a mute assassin, which i found to be very well made with some excellent editing and solid direction. Unfortunately, Bangkok Haunted failed to impress. I only found out after viewing the movie that only the third segment was directed by Oxide Pang, and Danny (the man behind the brilliant editing in Dangerous) had nothing to do with the film. From the start the movie attempts to creep out the audience, but the elaborate ghost stories are neither scary nor visually impressive. Throughout the three segments of the film, the spooks fail to spook, and the film fails as a horror flick. Clocking in at over two hours, this is an over-stretched movie that could have fitted easily into three half hour segments. While there are promising thing to be taken from the film, the stories are generally boring and more laughable than scary. This film could have been alot better, and i am glad that i rented it instead of rushing out to buy it.