THE HOUSE

(A.k.a. BAAN PHII SING)

Shalinee (Intira Jaroenpura) is an ambitious young journalist with a reputation for taking on the task of reporting on the rawer side of life: teenage prostitution, child abuse and the like.

Her husband Nu (Chutcha Rujinanon) works for a law firm but lacks his wife’s ambition. He’s keen for the pair of them to start a family. No sooner has he finally got Shalinee to take a break from her hectic schedule and spend some quality time with him, and she is propositioned by colleague Shane.

Shane presents Shalinee with what must be a rising reporter’s dream job: investigating the nationally notorious murder of a nurse from many moons ago, days ahead of the impending execution of the chief suspect, Doctor Wason.

Shalinee puts her work before her marriage once again and, for a while, Nu is happy to support her. Her first port of call is the hospital that Wason worked in, where interviews with people there point her in the direction of a derelict house situated just yards away. What’s more, one little girl claims the house to be haunted!

It is here, Shalinee is told, that Wason lived as a trainee doctor – and here where he is supposed to have killed the aforementioned nurse. Certainly, the evidence seems to point at his guilt … despite his continued protestations of innocence.

Shalinee and Nu check out the house (against the advice of local residents, bet you didn’t see that coming?), becoming spooked out by its ominous atmosphere and jarring hallucinatory images. Shalinee ‘sees’ Wason hacking up the nurse while a mysterious black figure leans over him, for instance …

The case has Shalinee hooked, much to Nu’s growing disdain. He wants her to leave work and adopt the traditional Thai role of stay-at-home wife and mother. Instead, she preoccupies herself digging deeper into the case and uncovering two alarmingly similar murders.

One, a more recent one, is attributed to the creepy Chalerm (Khomsan Nanthajit). Shalinee pays him a visit during a sequence that will give fans of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS a major case of déjà vu. She discovers that both he and Wason lived in the same house, at different times, when they apparently committed their almost identical acts of murder.

Intrigued further, Shalinee turns her attentions more and more onto the house. Meanwhile, Nu gets increasingly distressed by her choice of job over him. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that both of them have been suffering from violent dreams and bouts of paranoia ever since stepping foot in that house …

Had we not already had RING, or DARK WATER, or PULSE, or any number of other Asian horror films over the last two decades that tread a desperately similar path, THE HOUSE could’ve stood a fair chance of being very impressive. Monthon Arayangkoon’s film is, after all, well-crafted in terms of creepiness and shock tactics.

But this is by-the-numbers fare in this day and age. A female investigator who is haunted by increasingly surreal, gory dream images? Plagued by white-faced, screaming female ghouls who appear to be warning against some incoming peril? Long silent walks down empty hospital corridors? Set-pieces that incrementally blur the lines between reality and fantasy? We’ve seen all it many, many times before.

Perhaps Arayangkoon could’ve got away with it. His jump-cuts work on occasion; he has an eye for spooky stylistics and some set-pieces exhibit impressive control of build-up. Peripheral themes such as the lead couple’s marital strife and its intimations of how the traditional roles of gender are being changed by modern life in Thailand are interesting. But under-developed.

The script is frequently diabolical, almost consciously undermining the otherwise likeable performances. The film starts off at a cracking pace but cannot sustain it over the course of 100 minutes. Really, the screenplay as a whole is dire – dialogue is dumb, plot contrivances are predictable.

Made in 2007, which is about 10 years too late to make an impression, THE HOUSE is technically efficient enough, but will only be fully appreciated by those new to the world of Asian horrors.

MVM Entertainment bring this Thai offering to UK DVD fully uncut.

The transfer preserves the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and enhances it for 16x9 television sets. Unfortunately, aside from some relatively sharp images and good facial detail throughout, the transfer is pretty lousy. Digital noise is a problem for the film’s entire duration, while darker scenes are seriously hampered by blockiness and unsightly wavering contrast. The film’s FX and production values demonstrate that it clearly wasn’t made on a shoestring budget, so there really is no reason why it should look so bad here.

A Thai 2.0 audio track is decent enough. English subtitles are burned-in but easy to read at most junctures.

MVM’s DVD opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu provides access to the film via 12 chapters.

The only extra feature on the disc is a 93-second trailer which does the film few favours.

THE HOUSE isn’t unwatchable crap. It’s actually well-made on many technical levels. But the screenplay hinders it tremendously, as does director Arayangkoon’s unabashed pilfering from films already seen. Add into the equation the fact that MVM’s disc is lacking, and this makes for a missed opportunity on all counts.

Review by Stuart Willis