****
Fans of anthologies should be in for a treat as the Thai “Phobia”
(of 4bia in some circles) has four tales of terror certain to entertain those
looking for their fill of haunts and ghostly revenge from beyond the grave.
 |
| Happiness |
*“Happiness” is about a lonely young woman, holed up in her apartment with a broken leg in a cast
after the taxi cab she was a passenger in hit a fellow sending the vehicle
flipping. She begins communicating with a guy she believes discovered her on a
social media site. However, she will soon learn that her current residence has
a significance as does her relationship with the person texting her. When she
is unable to see his picture, as he claims to be in the room with her, this
young woman begins to fear for her life. “100 days”, “cramped space”, a cell
phone in a casket, a picture on a cell that eventually unveils two faces, a
flight off a balcony, a serious car wreck replayed, and lights going out
throughout the apartment complex all lead to quite a conclusion when the woman
and the person she’s texting eventually “meet”. “Happiness” is a neat little
tale utilizing the cell phone, texting, and the desire to satiate loneliness,
with a grim result.
 |
| Tit for Tat |
*“Tit for tat” is a raucous, high energy, hyper-kinetically edited
and photographed revenge tale where a wronged bullied kid uses a demon curse
against a gang of no-good dopeheads, with violent results. Because the kid on
the bicycle wanted his notebook back (taken by the bullies), the gang was
caught with weed in their bookbag. Suspended as a result, they seek to really
rough him up, which includes pummeling him unmercifully, and eventually
dropping him out of a moving truck bed! So he decides to swap pain for pain…except
he also suffers when they all converge in a junk room in the school attic. Once
the curse is ignited, no one involved with the bullying will be spared. The
demons are a grotesque, ghoulish creation, CGI and barely visibly shown, while
a fan in an old abandoned building that falls does some serious damage. I
notice that it seems trips out of windows are a constant in “Phobia”. Gouged eyes
at the end and a stab wound bleeding out on the school hall as kids scatter in
horror are both part of the fun.
 |
| In the Middle |
*The more comic (…but still rather spooky in
parts) “In the Middle” concerns four pals camping and white water river
rafting. Joking about their fate (depending on who sleeps where in the tent)
and how if one of them died the unlucky person would return to haunt the dude
sleeping in the middle are essential ingredients in whether or not this tale
works at all as a humorous and eerie bit of nonsense. The emergence of a
drowned victim and how he scares the shit out of his friends who eventually try
to get away from him (and his appearance as he’s wet, pallid in color, somnambulant,
and soon looking quite dead) is what “In the Middle” is all about. Lots of
mainstream films like “Sixth Sense”, “Titanic”, and “The Others” (“The Others”
in particular is a clever joke) are mentioned in the dialogue of the young men.
The twist left me quite amused.
 |
| Last Fright |
*The final tale, “Last Fright” is all about how
a stewardess faces guilt and fear as her affair with a famed princess’ husband
comes back to haunt her…literally. This tale was my favorite of the four as it
is, to me, the creepiest. A good deal of what made this effective for me was
the emphasis on the stewardess and her confronting the possible spirit of a
woman she hurt physically and emotionally, ultimately leading to her own
undoing. Is the princess, wrapped in mummy bandages, really out to get the
stewardess or is it all in her head due to guilt, with her succumbing to the
fright pervasively terrorizing her? The storm, turbulence, and dark that
affects the plane while the body of the princess (as a result of the stewardess
purposely using shrimp to cause her an allergic reaction that eventually kills
her) is being flown to her own country adds atmosphere to the internal
nightmarish struggle existing within the stewardess. Use of the wrapped body
and how it looks to be alive at times also added weight in the nightmare of the
stewardess. To me, “Last Fright” was a fine spookshow.
I think “Phobia” had
enough with each tale to be of interest to fans of the horror anthology. There
are so many, there’s no disputing that, but we anthology fans can’t seem to get
enough of them. I do believe “Phobia” merits deserved search by such fans.
While there might be some similar aspects, each tale has enough different about
it as not to ever produce that repetition and déjà vu feeling. Try to find “Phobia”…I
think the search will produce satisfying results.
Comments
Post a Comment