18/37
Overall, there’s a lot to like here
Soriya returns to Cambodia in an attempt to find herself after her mother’s death, where she finds a family she never knew and an old building full of dark secrets. After her mother’s death, the Japanese-Cambodian manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to find out more about her past, but when she encounters strange events in the building that suggest something darker is happening to the residents, they have to stop before it spreads. One of the stronger features is the genuinely enjoyable and immersive setting, which features a number of interconnected parts that all come together quite well. Starting with the background of her mother dying under mysterious circumstances while living in a community she’s long since estranged from, this provides the means to establish a motif of return, as well as provide plenty of background for each of them.
This setup helps the film become much more entertaining as the sinister instincts start to kick in
Since we are aware of the relationship presented and how it affects her, the desire to reconnect with everyone when she comes to find out the reason is a natural part of their reunion. The presence of the community’s behaviors and rituals also seems like a perfect choice to enhance this type of story by making it seem like curious customs before gradually starting to appear darker and more sinister. This brings a fantastic sense of impending dread the longer these two stay in the community with the increasing danger leading to more excitement. With the understated nature of the community’s good-natured, if slightly unnatural, behavior or just noticing the ritualistic trappings that remain, it’s nice enough to serve the film until it gets to the more overt sequences later on.
she’s left alone in the apartment
The big sequence plays out as a form of bizarre meal preparation with the gathered family members and others she’s met in the community performing what appears to be a ritualistic ceremony designed to prepare her for a special occult ritual that will soon turn into a ritual. The nightmare dream where she can’t tell her dream from reality is quite impressive. It kicks off the rest of this into a much darker genre effort that includes several revelations about the visions she’s been experiencing, leading to a wild finale where the dark origins of the ceremony are revealed, as is all that it is about instilling a new spirit into the hosts’ bodies, which is again more subtle than expected, but still manages to deliver some generally chilling visuals and chases around the complex. All of this adds up to a lot to like here, because while there aren’t too many flaws here, a few issues do arise.
The main factors are the sense of confusion that is present here, as very little is explained
With the first half being much more sinister and understated than anything else, there isn’t much in the way of revealing what is going on, instead focusing on the eerie atmosphere of the building as well as their sinister behavior to generate fear almost exclusively. As a result, almost nothing is revealed about what the community is trying to do, what their ritual entails, or how everything is supposed to be carried out, so little is said about it. It’s not until the end that things come together, so there’s a chance it’ll be a bit confusing at first to get into what’s going on. Another downside is that this setup also makes for a fairly slow first half, and very little happens other than setting up the plot lines that pay off in the end, so it takes a while for it to really come together.
Rating Unrated/R: Violence and Language
These are a few of the minor flaws on display in this one.