The Medium ร่างทรง

 

A Thai-Korean horror film whose central conceit was its mockumentary/found-footage style of filming. Both the Thais and Koreans are known for producing great horror flicks although their heydays are a couple of years back. Nonetheless, a collaboration between them did come with a certain level of anticipation, and it is safe to say that The Medium did meet them - sort of.

The Medium was a slow burn horror thriller that took its time to establish the supernatural elements of its story, primarily because it dealt with a culture and beliefs - Northern Isan Thai - that were not so commonly known. 

At over 2-hours long, the film had three distinct acts. 

The first act, as aforementioned was establishing the conceit and background of the film and its characters. In this regard, director Banjong Pisanthanakun did very well. The mockumentary style gave us a clear sense of perspective and identity into its lead characters, and clues and hints were dropped early that foreshadowed things to come. Atmospherically, there was a pervasive sense of dread mixed with a certain mystery and unknowing-ness of how the story will develop.

In the second act, we finally get a clearer picture of what kind of subgenre of horror The Medium belonged to - no spoilers here - but the fun was then in trying to figure out the why and how. Why is it happening and how will they (the characters and the film makers) sort it out. And at this point, the typical creepiness commonly seen in first acts of horror films started to creep - ha! - in. As did the usual plot twists and ah-hah moments one would expect from the genre. 

Then we come to the third act, where The Medium just went all out. Think Ring meets The Exorcist meets Rec meets Dawn of the Dead. But at the same time, it was also not terrifying scary. A lot more gory, creepy, gross, morbid, icky than straight up frightening and scary. Thankfully also, Pisanthanakun kept the jump scares to the minimum. But boy, what an ending. A few zags when you thought it was going to zig, and a few zigging when they have just zagged. The final pay off was worth it which is really what one wished for with any decent horror films.

Let's be honest. The Medium was no Ring or Shutter but it did linger on after it ended and it will surely generate post-film conversation. Furthermore, the story and concept did leave the door open for possible sequels or anthology-like series. Therefore, do expect some possible afterlife incarnation.