Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: An anthology of connected tales regarding school hauntings and the mysterious coroner cleaning up afterward.
Review: We don't get a lot of anthology films that try to interlock the stories, so this was definitely a nice change of pace; in fact, the only other movie I can think of off the top of my head was "Trick 'r Treat." Unfortunately, the attempt to connect the characters sort of falls apart at one point and turns things more into a makeshift wraparound. While there are good ideas here, and a bit of originality, the overall experience gradually becomes disappointing with each passing story. The interconnection does not alleviate the problems either as that tangent to the story is weak and serves as mere transition scenes. However, the last story does bring things around nicely even if completely changing the tone in the last act and falling short of its potential.
To start things off we are introduced to a few characters ahead of time, but don't get your hopes up that this will be anything remotely on par with "Trick 'r Treat." The main character you need to focus on is the female coroner who can allegedly see ghosts. I suppose we are meant to assume she sees the stories unfold in her mind when showing up at the crime scenes to mop up? I really don't know about this aspect, but, honestly, I was just annoyed with the character in general. She's trying too hard to be stoic and is lazy as fuck; every time you see her she's either talking on the phone, staring aimlessly, or sitting on her ass while her co-workers are doing everything. Why would they hire her? To fill a quota? This was a huge ass wasted idea as we could have had some creepy shit like the "Final Destination" coroner or just a character that had a purpose. She doesn't even say anything interesting for all her stoicism. I'll get back to her later for the last story, but just keep her in mind as she is popping up between each story doing the shit I just mentioned.
Segment 1: Thugs come to beat up a lackey believing he has been stealing their drugs and/or money. This was actually really funny as they all start brawling right in the middle of the street with a bunch of onlookers and random people joining into the fray. Eventually the thugs capture the lackey and his girlfriend and demand the lackey take them to the drugs which happens to be at his university. While en route, they mention a haunted bathroom in the school that everyone fears to go toward. Being the tough guys that they are, the thugs want to see this for themselves. Almost immediately on path to this bathroom, ghosts start to appear and attack the group of four. As the group becomes trapped, and is almost prodded toward the bathroom, the lackey, his girlfriend, and one of the thugs end up dying to avoid the ghosts. The main thug ends up in the bathroom where he comes face to face with the primary ghost who, of course, promptly kills him. Not too sure how a building this haunted would still be inhabited, but I guess I can accept it for the time being. I do have to say, one of the ghosts looked excellent with impressive makeup effects, but sadly they didn't go to as much effort on the rest. Regardless, there were some good scares in this tale and this made for an excellent way to start things off.
Segment 2: For this tale, I really don't know how much of this is real or what, if any, cultural context would have been needed to properly understand the premise; I love Thai horror movies, but I'm not going to pretend I know a great deal about the country's history. Anyway, a girl, who is the granddaughter of a military leader who executed students on the campus years prior, is semi-bullied by current students who are still bitter over the incident. The girl doesn't feel any sense of guilt which annoys the class leader, or whatever, and he takes her to an allegedly haunted elevator where students were executed and the stories claim the elevator is stained red from their blood. They tell her to go in and of course she sees creepy visions, but apparently to the onlookers she passed out before going in the elevator and it was in her head; the girl decides to avoid the elevator like the plague from then on out as she sees visions from then on. One day she is tricked by bitches into getting back on the elevator alone as she sees the execution of the students first hand--experiencing their pain and suffering. Eh, there's something about the girl then trying to reunite the ghosts of two of the students, but then we learn the main girl had died herself. Fuck, I don't know. Coroner girl sort of sums things up for us on this one, but it ends with the implication that the main girl's ghost is still wandering around pointlessly. This was probably the weakest entry for me, and it felt a lot like an episode of "The Twilight Zone."
Segment 3: I think this segment was trying to be funny...or at least I hope so, because I couldn't take it seriously. I mean, it starts off with a dorky student in med school fantasizing about filling a cavity for the hot chick in class while she slowly pulls up her skirt. Good one, dude. Unfortunately for the dork, he wakes up from this dream screaming like a little girl right in the middle of class with everyone, including his hunny, laughing at him. In case you couldn't tell, the dork is a complete and utter fucking wimp, and the tale will continue beating that idea into your head until the end. After discovering his friend borrowed an assignment to copy, the dork is scolded for turning in the paper late. Of course he takes this revelation like a bitch and can't say shit back; this "friend" is really annoying and I am pissed he didn't die. Now, you may think the dork's hunny will play a part in the tale since she too was yelled at, but I guess they forgot about her. The dork and his so-called friend try to make up for things by promising to fill in at the hospital on a holiday when the staff is shorthanded. Unbeknownst to them, they learn the role they're filling in is for the morgue attendant. Of course our dear little dork is losing his shit as his friend keeps scaring him and ditching him to be left alone for long periods of time with the bodies. They miss a lot of opportunities to do something cool with this setup and stick to the typical bullshit scares you would come to expect. By the end, the dork has gone apeshit when the dumb friend tries to scare him once more. The dork goes to stab the friend, but out of nowhere a ghost saves the annoying friend...and that's the end. You stupid ghost! Why would you save that idiot?! That's like if Jar Jar was about to be killed and the Emperor, of all people, saved him. The fuck?!
Segment 4: Now we come to the last entry and the story about the coroner girl. I don't know what to make of this setup, because I get the idea that the coroner is a lesbian and that her roommate is her girlfriend but the movie keeps this oddly vague. Well, okay. The roommate is trying to cyber with some dude one night when he threatens to kill her after she teases him too much. Later, while coroner girl tries to sleep, the roommate goes out for snacks or something when she is harassed by some losers but seemingly rescued by one of the characters we saw earlier in the film who says he'll take her home; it's some dude that the thugs warned not to mess with. Meanwhile, cyber boy shows up to coroner girl whining as she realizes he's their neighbor. Eventually cyber boy crosses paths with the roommate and the guy that picked her up as we learn the two men know each other and are serial killers; well, at least the tough guy is, but cyber boy is his protege. We majorly shift tone as the roommate is brutally beaten, raped, and murdered. The two killers then go to take care of coroner girl when they are interrupted by a really cool and scary looking ghost of the roommate. But before things can become really interesting, the killers run away and that's about it. Coroner girl, being the lame psychic she is, senses something is up but only finds the snacks the roommate went to get. The movie then ends with us realizing that the person coroner girl has been talking to in between each segment is the roommate's ghost as she has finally tracked down the killers. Pst, you're a fucking ghost! How hard can it be...maybe if you'd get off the phone you could pull it off! My god. To make the closing all the more asinine, the killers pick up the ghost intending for her to be their next victim and they don't recognize it's the roommate?! They never even give us a proper death for those two goof balls to boot. This was supposed to be sentimental or something but it felt like a total waste to me. The story itself was good and the ghost looked awesome, but the conclusion is shallow and we are left wanting more closure.
Overall, these were some decent stories although they we're stretching things with the "haunted universities" aspect; it was more about the coroner girl seeing ghosts than the schools themselves. There was consistency between the quality of the tales that worked nicely, but I felt the first segment was the hands down winner. I liked the makeup effects on a lot of the ghosts which seems to have become a staple in Thai horror. But, to be fair, a lot of the scare factor was coming just from the look of the ghosts with really only one good setup also in the first segment. There were a few missed opportunities to work more creatively with the material presented, but they did still manage to pull off some original concepts. I would say this one is worth looking into since I was having more gripes with the technical aspects and disappointment with story execution than anything else. Meaning, others may appreciate the segments more than I, and I can take that into consideration. It's on youtube, so it's easy to check out.
Notable Moment: In the first segment when the thugs are trying to find the haunted bathroom. I liked that the elevator kept stopping on each floor with the creepy ghost getting a little closer to them with each stop.
Final Rating: 6/10
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