Coffin - Lebendig begraben

Director Ekachai Uekrongtham reunites with actor Ananda Everingham to move from the red light district of Singapore's Geylang back to Thailand to partake in the bizarre Thai ritual of having oneself laid in a coffin to get rid of bad karma. It seems that all the karma in the world are on a zero sum equation, and what you try to get rid of, get translated into unwanted supernatural attention and transferred elsewhere where you least expected.

On paper and from the trailers, the premise is rich for plenty of scare opportunities to be milked. Alas the star pairing of Karen Mok and Ananda Everingham is too overrated, as both only share one scene together, and a short one at that. The story also seemed a tad weak and filled with too many draggy scenes which supposedly tries to build tension and anticipation, but falls flat on its face. And don't get me started on the dialogue, as it contains some of the most cringe-worthy lines that it's more interesting just sitting there just watching paint dry.

Don't get me wrong though, there were still some genuinely scary moments, of just 2 scenes which almost guarantees your heart skipping a beat. But that's it. You wait for almost an hour for something to make your hair stand on ends, and they come fast and furious. And too bad that after that the entire film went flaccid after some solid spurts as it plodded along to a boring last act which tried to rationalize the strange happenings a little too much that it just sucks out whatever soul the movie has confidently built up from that crescendo of horrific scenes.

Horrror movies are no stranger to Ananda Everingham, having been introduced to audiences through the superb Thai horror film Shutter. But unfortunately even his acting chops can't lift his mediocre character Chris out from the doldrums, who decided to get into the coffin to try and save his comatose girlfriend, but as suggested in the film but with the potential not followed through, the coffin used might not be a brand new one and could contain some unclean elements in it. While he doesn't have some of the scariest scenes in the film, what he did have was a scene quite powerful in itself toward the end to show off some of his dramatic flair.

Karen Mok has instead demonstrated that she's no scream queen, try as she might. Her portrayal of the troubled Su, who fled to Bangkok with her wedding looming on the horizon because she discovered she's suffering from lung cancer, doesn't provide that air of vulnerability, and her alpha-female persona just gives you the feeling that she'll pull through whatever supernatural trials and tribulations the story throws at her. She got the luck of the draw though with the scariest moments in the movie happening to her character, but too bad these were one off scenes that became the oddity in a horror movie caught up with trying to be innovative, but yet negated by feeling the necessity to explain everything verbatim.

If not for its rare handful of scares, some cheap, The Coffin should stay well buried six feet under, a pity given the premise that was so full of potential.

It's quite clear right from the start that the director is out to make a stylish movie, what with everything looking blue like he taped cellophane over the camera lens. I suppose artistic style can be used to create a mood of suspense for a horror movie if done right, but here it just makes everything look bleak.

Fortunately, not every shot is blue, and the director does provide the usual ba-dumm moments, though none exceptional. The movie was mostly a bore, with style over substance, and the only pleasant surprise I got from it was Ananda Everingham's delightful British accent, though I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise because of his name. Karen Mok, cool as she is, didn't really bring much to the movie (though I doubt she could've).

In Thailand, there are people that believe that is they lay down in a coffin they would cheat death and bring good luck. The bride Sue Wong (Karen Mok) leaves her fiancé Jack (Andrew Lin) in Hong Kong expecting to heal her lung cancer and she is well succeeded; however Jack dies. The skeptic Chris (Ananda Everingham) also participates in the ceremony to help his beloved Mariko (Aki Shibuya). However he panics with the claustrophobic situation and dies for 6 minutes and 42 seconds. They have weird visions of ghosts and strange things happen with them. Sue and Chris visit Professor Thanachai (Micheal Pupart) that advised them that they should repeat the burial to resolve their issues and stop the curse.

"The Coffin" is a messy film that begins with horror and ends like a soap-opera, with the encounter of Chris and May. The dialogs are confused and maybe westerns are lost in translation and difference of culture. The truth is that the plot is a mess and hard to understand. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Caixão" ("The Coffin")

The Coffin started out great, promised a lot of potential, scares and quite possible a lovely twist on top. Sadly, that old saying "a job well started is a job half done" does not apply here, cause I have to say, this one is a real downer.

So, why did The Coffin fail so bad? Well, it is a tad bit too slow, not unusual for such productions but still, and the way it heads to the end, it's just not interesting and annoying at times. I mean, we can kinda anticipate the twist if you are used with such movies, so why drag this along? Get there and do try to act more like a horror film, show some scares, create some tension, make better use of your surround noises! Anyway, it doesn't look like they tried to hard, I think it was a great idea that was not fully exploited, resulted in a half baked scrip and put on screen with no real intention of actually making another great horror that will remain up there, with the rest!

This one will seem long, boring and almost kinda useless. It should have done better. They had all the ingredients!

Cheers!

Following the Thai custom to cheat death and rid oneself of bad luck, a man who lays in a coffin for an evening subsequently experiences a series of terrifying incidents.

A Thai film, filmed in Singapore... I do not know much about Thai films or films from Singapore, but I can say that this is surprisingly stylish. I mean, am I wrong, or is Thailand a country where you can live comfortably on a dollar a day?

So far, the film has received generally negative reviews, with people pointing out the obvious blue tint. Yes, the tint is overdone. It seems to be a growing trend in recent years, and I have not found out why. But beyond that, it is not a bad film... maybe nothing special, but not bad.

I would not personally recommend this one to people, but perhaps if someone was really into Thai or Asian films... this definitely has a vibe that Chinese and Japanese films have. Not sure why they have the obsession with ghosts that they do, but here is another example of that motif.