Ghost Mother

Ghost Mother is one of the prominent Thai movies alongside films such as Shutter. It is a film that many people recommend within the horror genre; horror fans and non-horror fans enjoy it together and revel in its creepiness and tenseness. I figured it would be one of those gems within Asian horror and if it wasn't, then I ticked off another prominent Asian horror film at least from the extensive list I have of the "OGs" to watch.

And that is pretty much all I got to do with this film. Tick a film name off a list and also catch up on some sleep.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of things, I want to say that the cast in this was amazing. The characters all felt real and three-dimensional. There were no parts where I felt like there was bad acting or anything of the sort. The cast all did amazingly with what they had been given and I'm very interested in at least attempting to watch some other things they've been in.

That's pretty much where my enjoyment runs out.

My issue mostly that lies with Ghost Mother is that it's promoted and shared as a horror film. This is not a horror film. This is a thriller if anything. Although it fits many horror tropes, this film is not relatively scary, nor creepy or unsettling, and I struggled with finishing this - probably wouldn't have if my OCD allowed me to abandon things and not force me to finish them. There were a few points where I did get a little tense and had my hairs stand up on end, but that was about 7 minutes of the entire film if that. This is promoted as such a wonderful horror film but it's just not. There was a point where I fell asleep for ten minutes, woke up and made a coffee, woke myself up and then almost fell back asleep during the same ten minutes. The storyline is unique enough for it to have pulled some amazing work out of the bag but it fell short on so many levels. There are moments where I was staring at my screen confused as to what was going on, I couldn't remember some characters relationship to other characters, and all in all this just fully struggled to keep my attention for longer than a few minutes at a time. My mind kept wandering, I kept checking how long I had left to watch, and I just didn't enjoy it at all.

I admit I am sad I couldn't enjoy this film. I didn't go into it expecting a massive amazing 10/10 across the board film, but I figured it would at least be at an average or just above average standard. I went into Ghost Mother expecting a 6-7/10 film but came out of it disappointed with a 4.5/10 and I'm pretty sure I'm being nice because it's such a beloved piece. There are other Thai horror films that are truly scary, are true epitomes of horror and I recommended spending an hour and a half watching one of those, rather than this, unfortunately.

Let's start with how this is not a true horror film. In my opinion, this is a thriller with supernatural aspects. I assume that the only reason this has been put in the horror category is because there is a few kills and blood but calling it horror is a stretch.

The storyline is understandable but convoluted and not put together well. It is choppy, details are vague and doesn't maintain the viewer's attention with interesting dialogue or interaction making it feel bland. I'm still not sure exactly what our antagonists were really after.

I guess if you are into thrillers you could check it out but it won't knock your socks off.