Tuk kae phii

While studying caves, a group of geologists leaded by Professor Maeda is attacked by gecko fiends that possess their bodies transforming them into zombies. On the next morning, the local inspector finds the corpses of the team. Then the writer Miss Kwan travels to the location to give lectures and is possessed by the evil gecko spirit, but her skeptical boyfriend doctor does not understand what is happening to her and believes she has a brain damage.

The dull "Tuk Kae Phii" a.k.a. "Lizard Woman" is a messy supernatural story that does not make any sense at least for westerns. I am not sure whether this lizard spirit is part of the Thai folklore or urban legend and make sense for Thai people; nevertheless this awful movie is neither scary nor funny, and the awful screenplay never develops characters or situations and therefore does not work. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição do Lagarto" ("The Curse of the Lizard")

Folklore horror from Thailand, "LIZARD WOMAN" gives you a bit of everything; flesh tearing geckos, ghosts, gecko spirits, possessed reptilian transformations, corpses, cursed artifact, blood puking, ritual exorcism ceremony and a lot of lizard poop. Sounds wild, doesn't it? It had its moments, few brutal inflictions, strange developments and a couple of eerie scenes involving the lizard woman.

The style felt largely Western than Eastern in its influences and set-up. Too bad the execution, while slick and filtered with an earthy color scheme, is beyond generic and a plot that's so incomprehensible leading to a reveal that at first simply makes you roll your eyes before the head scratching commences. Hard to understand why they went that lazy direction, but it did explain the jumpiness of certain (although not all) out-of-the-blue scenes to how they tied in to each other. Still making sense of it is another matter.

The first and third acts involving scurrying geckos, a haunted shack and the surrounding forest with night time mist are where the fun and insanity asides. More times than most it does come across laughable than truly threatening. I would say the geckos would have a lot to do with that. A mesh of real geckos alongside rubber toys and even at one stage a hand puppet, but the most prominent; shoddy CGI and this includes gore FX too. While those pesky CGI geckos popping up everywhere look cute, at least the visuals around the lizard woman unnerves, from her appearance to the mimicking movements of a lizard. Treated seriously, be it from its technical handling to its screenplay and lead performances. I just wished it had stayed consistently crazy and simple, as when it does it works. Instead of a structure trying to finesse its b-grade origins by ending on a tired, poorly realised final note.

Mostly a mess. The biggest problem is that the "terrifying" lizards look too damn cute. They have large open mouths and big beady eyes. It just looked like they were smiling the whole time. If you have a fear of Kermit, this may make your spine-tingle. In other uses, the effects are excellent. Mixing practical with computerised. A few shots were very memorable and freaky, such as an elongated arm at a window, and some of the facial deformities. When people start turning into big old lizards that jump through people, then I start to tune out a bit. People walked around with a very low range of expressions, and it didn't help that it tried to complicate itself towards the end.

Flesh eating lizards sound scary, right? Well, they would be if they were 6ft long, and secreted acid, breathed fire, or carried chainsaws. But when they're a few inches long and are either poorly rendered CGI or made of rubber, that's a different matter entirely.

In Lizard Woman, evil reptilian spirits are freed when a group of geologists accidentally break open a strange wooden casket; when attacked by these supernatural geckos, victims are transformed into deadly lizard-zombie-ghost thingys.

After his girlfriend falls victim to one of the little lizards, a doctor attempts to find a way to save the woman he loves.

This dreadful Thai horror movie is a bizarre mixture of spooks and killer animals, with a touch of possession and zombie mayhem thrown in for good measure, but the insane story is virtually incomprehensible, incredibly dull and ultimately not nearly as much fun as my synopsis makes it sound.

Director Manop Udomdej's handling of the action is uninspired, and he blatantly lifts the best bits from superior Western horrors such as The Evil Dead and The Exorcist. To make matters worse, the special effects are pretty poor, with even the occasional potentially good gore scene ruined by too much unconvincing CGI blood.

The film is spared the disgrace of getting 1/10 thanks to the occasional freaky moment and some (very brief) female nudity (cute nekkid Thai women always help my enjoyment of a film).

I give Lizard Woman 1.5 /10 (which is begrudgingly rounded up to 2/10 for IMDb).

The fab cover art suggests, yet a juicy Thai horror but ultimately a huge letdown. Dodgy (low grade) special effects which fails in both atmosphere and scares. Can't really see much to recommend, apart from the unusual nudity from some the lovely looking actress. There's 101 better South East Asian horrors out there, so go seek them out! This one though, goes on top of the trade pile.