33/49
All in all, there’s a lot to like here
Synopsis
Soriya returns to Cambodia in search of 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, a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to find out more about her past, but when she’s faced with strange happenings inside the building that hint there’s something darker going on and the residents must stop it before it spreads. One of the stronger features is a truly enjoyable and immersive setting that has many interconnected parts that come together quite well.
This leads to a fantastic sense of looming dread the longer the two remain in union with increasing danger leading to more excitement
Starting with the backstory of her mother who died in mysterious circumstances while living in a community from which she had long since become estranged, this provides the means to establish a motive for returning, as well as giving enough knowledge of their mutual background. Since we are aware of the relationship presented and how it affects her, the desire to reconnect with everyone after she manages to discover the cause is a natural part of their reunion. It also makes the presence of community behaviors and rituals a perfect choice to enhance this type of story by appearing as unusual customs before gradually becoming darker and more sinister.
This set-up helps make the film a lot more fun once the sinister instincts start to materialize
With a low-key nature that revolves around the good-natured, if slightly erratic behavior of the community or just noticing the ritual decorations left behind, this is nice enough to serve the film until the more overt sequences of her left alone in the apartment later. The big sequence plays out as a form of bizarre meal preparation with gathered family members and others she’s met in the community performing what appears to be a ritual ceremony designed to prepare her for a special occult ritual that soon turns into a nightmare fever dream that she can’t tell the difference his dream from reality is quite impressive. Begins the rest of this in 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 it’s all about infusing a new spirit into the hosts' a body that is again more modest than expected, but still has some generally creepy visuals and chases around the complex.
Among the main factors there is a sense of confusion here as very little is explained
All of this adds up to a lot to like here because while there aren’t too many flaws here, some issues do crop up. Since the first half is much more ominous and stealthy than anything else, there isn’t much in the way of figuring out what’s going on, preferring to stay focused on the haunting atmosphere of the building, as well as their sinister behavior that almost exclusively creates scares. As a result, almost nothing is revealed about what the community is trying to do, what their ritual involves, or how it is supposed to be performed, so very little is mentioned.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and language
It’s only at the end that it all comes together, so there’s the potential for this to be a bit confusing at first to get into what’s going on. Another shame is that this setup also makes for a rather slow first half and very little happens other than setting up the stories that pay off at the end, so it takes a while to come to fruition. These are a few of the minor flaws shown with this.
