14/28
Overall, there’s a lot to like here
Chronology
Soriya returns to Cambodia in search of herself after her mother’s death, there she finds a family she never knew and an old building filled with dark secrets. After her mother’s death, a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to find out more about her past, but when she is faced with strange events within the building that hint at something darker going on with the residents, they must stop it before it spreads. One of the strongest features is a truly enjoyable and immersive setup that features a lot of interconnected parts that come together quite well.
That builds a fantastic sense of impending dread the longer the two stay in the community and the increasing danger leads to more thrills
Starting with the backstory of her mother dying under mysterious circumstances while living in the community she’s long since moved away from, this provides the means to establish her motive for returning as well as giving enough information about their backgrounds with each other. As we’re aware of the relationship presented and how it affects her, the desire to reconnect with everyone once she arrives to find out the cause is a natural part of their reunion. It also makes the presence of the community’s behavior and rituals seem like the perfect choice to enhance this kind of story by appearing as quaint customs before gradually appearing darker and more sinister.
This setup helps the movie become a lot more fun once the sinister instincts start to pay off
With the low-key nature revolving around the community’s kind-hearted, if slightly eccentric, behavior or simply noticing the ritualistic decorations left behind, this is nice enough to serve the movie until it gets to the more blatant sequences later on when she’s left alone in the apartment. The big sequence plays out as a strange meal preparation with the gathered family members and other people she met in the community performing what appears to be a ritualistic ceremony designed to prepare her for a special occult ritual that soon turns into a nightmarish fever dream where she can’t tell her dream from reality, which is pretty impressive. It starts off the remaining part of this one on a much darker genre effort that includes several revelations about the visions he’s been experiencing, leading up to the wild finale where the dark origins of the ceremony are revealed as it’s all about bringing the new spirit into the body of a host, which is again more low-key than expected but still manages to deliver some generally chilling imagery and chases around the compound.
Among the main factors is the sense of confusion present here as very little is explained
All of this brings a lot to like here, as while there aren’t too many drawbacks present here, several issues do arise. As the first half is much more sinister and low-key than anything else, there’s not much to reveal about what’s going on, preferring to remain focused on the eerie atmosphere of the building as well as its sinister behavior to deliver the scares almost exclusively. As a result, almost nothing is revealed about what the community is trying to do, what their ritual entails, or how it’s all supposed to be carried out, so very little is mentioned.
Unrated/R Rating: Violence and Language
It’s not until the end that everything comes together, so there’s a chance this will be somewhat confusing at first to get into what’s going on. The other downside is that this setup also allows for a rather slow first half and very little happens beyond setting up the storylines that are paid off in the finale, so it takes a while for it to sink in. These are the few minor downsides on display with this film.