Ghost Mother (2007)

Directed by Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn [Other horror films: N/A]

I’ve not seen an over-abundance of Thai horror films. In fact, interested, I checked out on IMDb the Thai films I have seen, and I came up with just six total (ranging from the great like 303 Fear Faith Revenge and The Dorm to the mediocre such as The Victim to the terrible such as Sick Nurses). Ghost Mother now makes that seven films from Thailand.

Sadly, though, I’d probably rank this closer to The Victim than I would The Dorm or 303 Fear Faith Revenge. That said, it’s no doubt better and more cohesive than The Victim, but ultimately, Ghost Mother probably falls around average.

Pachrapa Chaichua was decent as a main character, but I didn’t get a ton of expression from her. Better was Focus Jirakul and Thana ‘Oil’ Suthikamorn. I also enjoyed the woman who played the sister of Chaichua’s character, but I’m not sure what her name was (this foreign film isn’t particularly well-indexed). I’m thinking it was perhaps Sudarat Wongkrut (which is apparently another name for Chotika Wongwilas), or maybe (I have no idea if Thiti is a male or female name in Thailand, but I also didn’t know that Chotika was a female name in Thailand either until today, so cut me a break), but whoever played that character, good for her.

It’s true that in some ways, the story of a ghost getting revenge on those who killed her is somewhat simple, and though this movie does play around a little with narrative structure (such as showing a flashback to a scene the audience hadn’t seen before), it’s a pretty easy story to follow, which is something I’m actually happy about. Too often I can get lost watching Asian horror (good examples of this would be Ju-on and A Tale of Two Sisters, not to again mention The Victim), so it’s nice to be able to sit down and get the salient points across.

Worth mentioning, while the version I watched was subtitled, they weren’t the best subtitles I’ve ever seen. Sentences were phrased oddly and incorrect syntax was often used. None of this led to any conversation going above my head, and it was probably more funny than annoying, but I thought it worth pointing out.

Ghost Mother was okay, which isn’t really what I was expecting when I first found out I’d be watching it. It’s not a great movie, and I doubt it’s special in many ways (most of the kills themselves are just okay, but there are occasionally creepy visions, such as a character seeing a hanged woman on a bus that was passing by), but for Thai horror, at least the little I’ve seen, it’s a movie that might be worth watching just for a taste of something different.

6.5/10