Laa-thaa-phii

The premise seemed interesting enough - a group of game contestants undertaking the ultimate dare, to rough it out in a prison renowned for its haunting given that it was the location of a massacre. The news film reel style at the beginning, without showing much gore, already set the atmosphere and mood, providing much anticipated scares for our 11 contestants. Again I'm sad to say that this horror flick didn't work for me.

It seemed like a bit of Battle Royale meeting Truman Show mixed with Survivor elements. While Battle Royale had a group of students sent to an island for them to whack the living daylights out of each other, in this one our motley crew had to rely more on psychology to outplay, outwit and outlast each other, as well as the supernatural elements. There's something in common though, in that they had ex-winners re-enter the competition. There're plenty of CCTV cameras and public announcement speakers installed throughout where instructions are yelled through, and images are recorded for public broadcast in the show Ghost Game.

Like Survivor, there were plenty of decisions made in the spirit of that game, together with familiar elements of alliances and mistrust, of second guessing good intentions and making wild conjectures, all in the name of playing the game and emerging the winner for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Which actually left the scares wanting. Unfortunately we had to fall back on the usual lame quick cuts, sudden camera zooms, and extreme close ups accompanied by loud beats to race heartbeats. It might even leave you wondering about that aged old saying, that only if you're unlucky, could you see spirits wandering around you. Here, sightings aren't consistent if that aged old saying is to be believed, and that could be a bit frustrating. Setting the game to coincide with the anniversary of the massacre seemed like common sense for television ratings,

As a side, the eleven contestants here are actually from a variety show called Academy Fantasia in Thailand, and in similar fashion, they get "voted off" here too. The gem however turned out to be the scene played during the end credits, where the contestants come out to say a few words prior to being sent to the game location. Plenty of cheese as they ham it up in character, and watching it in hindsight, you can't help but to feel a tinge of despair.

P.S. I've read that the filmmakers had to apologize given the premise of the prison seemed to have cut too close to the Cambodian's Toul Sieng prison during the Khmer Rouge regime, with the depiction of genocide, and the loose reference in the movie in the form of a game show.

11 contestants sign up for a scary reality show which forces them to confronts the supernatural and their inner fears.They're brought to an ancient war museum in Cambodia,which was used as a Khmer Rogue prison twenty years before.Thousands of people were tortured and killed there during the Cambodian war in the 70's.Now the museum is abandoned and no one dares to step inside.The single winner of the show will be rewarded for 5 million Baht.Inspired by the big reward,they accept to risk their lives in the museum and soon they meet the real ghosts of the past..."Ghost Game" is occasionally effective horror flick that is also very confusing.The characters are one-dimensional and they generally only scream and argue with each other.The script lacks creativity and the ghostly apparitions quickly become boring.5 out of 10.

The movie itself is a failure, big time. Scare elements left me yawning (literally). The story has no real ending, and makes little sense. However, I do like the premise where the movie is based on, and the directing made the movie looks very much like a reality show. I find myself asking the same questions as I would while watching a reality show. The sound is nothing to shout about, but the sight is quite awesome. Set design was incredibly detailed and realistic. Lighting was especially good. However, costume design and make-up leaves a lot to be desired. Acting was incredibly lame. A good watch to waste your time, but I have better things to do and scarier movies to watch. Try Shutter if you can get your hands on it. One of the best Thai scary movie ever. In fact, with Shutter and Dorm, I'll say that Thai movies are beginning to play better than most Hollywood cash cows, but then Ghost Game came along and destroyed my conviction.

The name of the game in Ghost Game is that 11 people on a reality TV show must all live in a hunted location. The last one to stay with out running away wins. This year's location is an abandon war museum ware a horrific massacre took place during a time of conflick. What they don't know is that in this game they might be gambling with there lives.

Ghost Game has a few moments that might make you jump but over all this is just another quickly made d-rated horror movie with all the same clichés. We have a group of young people in there twenty's, we put them in a creepy location that always dark and by the end they all die off in horrible ways. What I just describe is what most d-rated horror flicks in the U.S are like. This one the same only now it's from Asia.

All the characters are not interesting. Our lead character is the girl who won last years show. She a stereo typical star for a horror movie. A young hot girl who over all is nice and innocent. At the end it's even reviled the only reason why she on the show is to get money to help her sick mom. The other charters just come off to me as stereo types you find in a class room. We have the nerds, the super hot snobby girl, and the prankster who has a crush on the snobby girl.

The story is confusing. At first I thought I could follow it until it neared the end. All 11 players are to stay in what used to be a military base ware the commanding officer ruthlessly slaughter prisoners. When facing his own down fall he shoots him self in the head. Years go by and a strange death is caught on camera showing three guards just falling dead from shock. This gets the attention of the producers' of the show Ghost Game. So our 11 heroes must play a survivor rip off but our lead finds her self stallked by a Ghost of one of the victims. This slowly leads to strange events happening all around the others. That's until it lead us to the big unspeakable horror that lead me scratching my head at a pure lost. The final Climax takes a couple times to watch in order to get what happen. Even after getting it still leads to one vary stereo typical ending for a stereo typical horror movie.

The ghost in Ghost Game are okay in some scenes but in other (especially near the end) I did not find them that scary at all. In fact I found the final ghost to be humors looking because the actor was just trying to hard to look scary.

Its not the worst horror movie I have ever seen. Near the beginning there a few creepy scenes and I will admit there were some good moments that I enjoyed but that not enough to save it.

I supposed this is good when you literally have nothing ells to do. There is some, but not much entertainment value in it. I for one however will guarantee you that once you see this movie you will forget about it in a week or even less. So I would not even recommend renting it. Its one of those movie you wait to come on TV (and if there really nothing ells good on) to watch out of pure boredom.

That why I give Ghost Game a 4 out of 10

A disappointingly uneventful Thai horror film about a group of unappealing characters, trapped in a haunted location and finding themselves at the mercy of various ghostly figures. The premise behind GHOST GAME sounds good – BATTLE ROYALE with a supernatural twist, perhaps – but the execution turns out to be lacklustre and muddled in equal measure. After the usual chit-chat and setup to the story, the characters are split up either singly or into pairs and then face repetitive encounters with grey-faced spirits.

The film is billed as 'one of the most controversial' ever made; in Cambodia, maybe, where folk took exception to the former Khmer Rouge setting and banned the movie, but certainly nowhere else. In fact, it turns out to be rather predictable. The ghostly encounters are played for maximum scares, but never unsettled me for a moment; I've seen so many similar run-ins with spirits, zombies, etc. that I must have become rather jaded. The entire setup - with the shadowy locales, suspenseful music, and frightened actors - just feels passe, as if it's being performed by rote rather than with genuine enthusiasm.

I didn't think much of the actors or indeed the director, either, and a script that's content to repeat rather than innovate just adds to the overall disappointing viewing experience. I don't know about the Thais, but I prefer my horror a little more sophisticated than in this predictable outing…give me SHUTTER any day!