The Screen At Kamchanod Like Coming Soon, this is a horror film that deals with a haunted film. The main difference being that this is supposed to be inspired by true events. On January 29, 1989, in Kamchanod forest, northern Thailand, a paranormal event occurred that was widely reported by the nation's media. An outdoor screening of a film took place in a forest clearing without any audience in attendance other than the projectionists. Part way through the screening, a multitude of people came out of the forest to watch the film and then vanished before the film's end. Now, 18yrs later, Dr. Yut, with the aid of various assistants, is planning on recreating the event in the hope of finding out what really happened. Another horror release from Thailand's Five Star Productions company, who seem to make nothing else these days. The Screen... is light on plot and overburdened with (attempted) scares. As an exercise in editing it's near faultless. As an exercise in storytelling it's a bit of a mess. Dr. Yut's attempt to recreate the sreening is almost a mcguffin - despite the countdown inter-titles (14 days to go. 5 days to go, etc.) there is never any tension over whether or not the film will screen on time. We never find out why he is so determined to recreate the screening - to the point of putting his colleagues in danger - or what he hopes to achieve by doing it. Not only does this mean that we never find out the point of his actions but we never find out anything about the reasons behind the original screenings. Instead the film becomes more about the relationships between the various members of the group, all of which seems geared towards the twist endings - though most of this only takes place during the final third of the film. Most of the plot's mystery element occurs during the opening third as Dr.yut and his team try and track down the film used for the original screening. Once they find the film they arrange a private screening and, before you can say Ring, they (and we) are watching a series of abstract images blown large on the screen in a creepy old cinema. This viewing of the film leads to each of the group having several encounters with the supernatural. Basically, this turns the whole middle third of the film into a near plotless series of scenes where scare is piled upon scare and false scares are piled upon false scares. This film must have one of the highest ghost to living ratios of any Asian horror film. To be fair, the film does, simply through sheer weight of numbers, deliver a few decent scares. And the ghosts themselves are a more varied bunch than the usual Dead Wet Girls - it even features what must be cinema's first morbidly obese ghost. The film gets a little confusing when they finally get round to recreating the screening, though the karmic retribution themed twist endings (which work quite well) help clear things up a bit. Writer/ director Songsak Mongkolthong obviously picked up a lot of tricks from his time working as an assistant director on Pang brothers' films. The film is stylishly shot - though it does boast a drab grungy look that's common to many Thai horror films - and has the same expert use of sound and visual editing found in the Pang's films. The film also has a nice Thai horror in joke as during an outdoor screening in the film the audience are watching the very good Thai horror The Unseeable. On the writing side of things Mongkolthong falls down. The plot could fit on the back of a stamp, and the film is way too padded with cheap and false scares. Simply put, if you're a fan of the style of ghost film coming out of Thailand in recent years you'll probably get a kick out of this. If you're not a fan of such films then this won't win you over. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k685qZhTI3s
This movie stunk, IMO. I think I was even less impressed than you were. Indeed, there are lots of ghost scenes. Too bad they're all pointless jump scares that any no-talent filmmaker could trot out. The protagonists also have zero charisma and the script is undeniably weak and boring on all fronts.
