At first it all seemed perfectly harmless, a film team sets out to make a documentary about Nim (Sawanee Utooma), a shaman in Thailand's Isan region. She seems to be an interesting enough subject since despite being a shaman she seems to be very grounded in reality. And she comes from a long line of female shamans, with the gift (a sort of possession by a Goddess) handed down from mother to daughter. Originally, Nim wasn't supposed to be the shaman but her sister Noi (Sirani Yankittikan), but Noi refused the Goddess and even converted to Christianity instead. Nim meets Noi for the funeral of Noi's husband, who has died in an accident, and it turns out that none of his ancestors have died unnaturally as well for quite a few generations back now. At the funeral, Noi's daughter Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) shows unnaturally rude behaviour, which at first can be interpreted as an outlet for her grief, but after a while she shows symptoms that Nim has shown before she has become a shaman. So it might be that Mink has been chosen as her successor - only she doesn't want to become a shaman, and Noi forbids her flat out anyways. But Mink's symptoms, which include uncontrollable menstrual bleeding, promiscuity, and rude to violent behaviour, only grow stronger, so much so that they make her lose her job. And eventually, both Mink and Noi agree to let Nim perform a ceremony that will have Mink accepting the Goddess. Thing is, on the eve of the ceremony, Nim realizes it's not the Goddess who wants to be accepted into Mink but ... something else. She refuses to perform the ceremony, so Noi goes about it without Nim's help - and from here on, Mink steadily declines, she becomes a threat to those closest to her, and even at one point cooks and eats the family dog, and seems to develop more and more feral traits. Nim seeks the advice of Master Santi (Boonsong Nakphoo), who's quick to realize that through the acceptance ceremony Mink hasn't let the Goddess into her, but the ghosts of those who have been executed by one of her ancestors who want to have revenge through her. And while Mink grows worse and worse and more and more dangerous on top of that, Santi and Nim hastily set up a sort of exorcism, which Santi decides to go through with even after Nim all of a sudden dies from unnatural causes. But the spirits that possess Mink are tricky ones, and they have their own way to disrupt the ritual - and violently so ...

A pretty well structured piece of exotic horror that doesn't give away its game till very late in the film, basically starting out as your typical found footage movie, and even if that approach is technically never given up, it for a change doesn't come across as aesthetic shortcut but follows a comprehensible cinematic language with proper editing. But the thing is, over the course of its 130 minutes running time, the film develops from a pseudo documentary into a very wild and visceral shocker, with a finale that's unsettling on both a visual and psychological level. And a very solid cast and self-assured direction see to it that this is one movie that will stay with one for quite a while after watching ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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